The star, 54, who is best known for playing Zoe Tate in the ITV soap, updated fans in a candid new post on her blog, Something Beginning With C, earlier this week. “I tripped over some washing (I know, ridiculous, and painful!) and have been forced to slow down, to stop, confined to the static safety of the sofa out of harm’s way for a few weeks,” she said. “Good in the sense that I have no alternative but to get on with writing my book, but oh the yearning for the sweet nourishment of my heart and soul,” Leah Bracknell added. The Emmerdale actress opened up about the desire to be “nurtured and nourished by life”.
“I saved the sweet spots of my existence, like a nectar, a mystical elixir that sits previous in this challenging world,” she wrote. “Those moments are like gold.
“Framed in a timeless shadow of a memory, that I wear like diamonds around my neck.
“Time with my loved ones, sunrise over a frosty field, the hug of friends and community, a prayer shared around a fire, a good book under the duvet,” she continued.
“Lunch club, the weight of a purring cat on my chest, caravan adventures, ceremony.”
In October, Leah said she had been told her cancer was “stable”.
Having been signed up to a medical trial, she informed fans on her blog: “Last week, the long-awaited scan results from the first phase of the trial I am on, have come back with the encouraging news that, currently, the cancer is stable.
“The celebration is muted, one of relief rather than champagne and fireworks,” she continued.
“But it is without doubt the most positive news to come my way in almost a year.”
At the time, Leah explained the news meant “hope” for her and that she could remain on the medical trial until the next scan six weeks later.
The former Emmerdale star recently spoke out about passing a milestone in her cancer journey.
“I have just passed the two-year mark from the day on which I received a diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer,” she said.
“The writing on the wall two years ago was very different given that the statistics, as out of date as they are for stage 4 lung cancer, predict a frighteningly brief median survival time of eight months.”
Leah’s acting career began with The Chiffy Kids and she first played Zoe Tate in Emmerdale in 1989.
She finally departed in the soap in 2005 and had since appeared in Judge John Deed, Doctors and A Touch of Frost.
Leah is married to author Jez Hughes.
She is also mother to two grown-up daughters, Lily and Maya.