Samantha Womack has revealed she moved to Spain to focus on her health after her beloved dog died just weeks after she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.  

The EastEnders actress, 53, rescued her dog Lola from Goa, India in 2019 after she and her daughter Lili-Rose fell in love with her over the course of their three week trip.

In a new interview, Samantha revealed Lola’s death in September 2022 was one of the ‘worst days’ of her life as it made everything she was facing with her health real. 

Lola’s death came just a month after the screen star was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Samantha received the all clear five months later, but it was a deeply emotional period for the star who ultimately decided to move to Valencia.

The actress told the Sunday Times: ‘She died on the same day as the Queen. I was devastated. It was one of the worst days of my life. 

Samantha Womack has revealed she moved to Spain to focus on her health after her beloved dog died just after she had been diagnosed with breast cancer 

The EastEnders actress, 53, rescued her furry pal Lola from Goa, India in 2019 after she and her daughter Lili-Rose fell in love with her over the course of their three week trip

‘I’d just been diagnosed with breast cancer and losing Lola was probably worse for me than the breast cancer diagnosis. It made everything seem real. 

‘That was when I decided to stop working and focus on getting better… If I hadn’t lost Lola, I wouldn’t have gone back to Valencia and taken a year off to really try to work on my body and get better, so Lola changed the course of my life.’

Lola went on tour with Samantha for The Girl On The Train and even joined her on stage.

The actress has five other dogs, three of which she rescued. After Lola’s death she got a podenco called Xena, who she calls a ‘warrior princess’.

Samantha added that Xena was to celebrate the life of Lola and came to her at a time when she needed to be her own warrior princess as she tried to recover. 

Shortly after Lola’s tragic passing in 2022, the model paid tribute to her in a sweet Instagram post where she posted a carousel of images with her pooch.

She captioned he post: ‘My heart is broken. My soulmate Lola. Cannot cope with losing you, not now…’ 

A month before, the soap star had announced that she’d ‘started her own battle’ with breast cancer as she paid tribute to Grease star Olivia Newton-John.

It was a deeply emotional period for the star who lost her dog that same year she was diagnosed with cancer and ultimately decided to move to Valencia

Shortly after Lola’s tragic passing in 2022, the model paid tribute to her in a sweet Instagram post where she posted a carousel of images with her pooch

Olivia died from complications of breast cancer in August 2022 at the age of 73. 

In a tribute to the late actress, she tweeted a picture of the pair with Olivia’s daughter Chloe, taken when Samantha had played Sandy in the 1993 West End production of Grease.

Samantha captioned the image: ‘This was the most magical of evenings. Olivia and Chloe had come to see Grease in London and we had dinner together afterwards.

‘I was so excited and in awe, she was my childhood. I now start my own battle with this disease and am left feeling deeply moved. #OliviaNewtonJohn.’

Samantha, who famously played Ronnie Mitchell in EastEnders from 2007 to 2017, was immediately flooded with messages of support from her celebrity friends.

The model went for a routine check-up which led to her diagnosis and she continued to work through treatment as she starred in West End productions including The Girl On The Train and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

‘I didn’t have any lumps or feel ill,’ she previously told the Daily Mail, ‘I’ve never been a doctor person so in the middle of two shows I went for a check-up not expecting to find anything.

‘So I went for the ultrasound and there was a little screen on the wall in the doctors’ room. Looking at it afterwards, we saw this little black shadow that wasn’t a circle.

‘My step-dad is a doctor and I knew that most things natural are circular. Everyone just went quiet.

‘In my brain, I did think, “there you are”. I do feel like somewhere in our brains, our intuition is important. I’ve learnt to listen to that voice in my head as it basically saved my life.’

Samantha continued to work through her cancer as she starred in the West End production of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (pictured on stage, 2022) 

While nothing had been confirmed, the mother of two said she ‘knew’ that she had cancer after the first scan.

Yet she had to get back on stage and continue performing, and recalled going ‘mad’ as the reality of the situation sunk in.

Samantha was later diagnosed with an ‘aggressive’ high grade three form of breast cancer which had already started spreading and – if identified later – could easily have proved fatal.

She underwent both chemotherapy and radiotherapy, describing the treatment as a ‘rollercoaster’.

Samantha added: ‘Going through treatment is suddenly just so adrenaline-fueled.

‘All of a sudden you’re hearing words and terms you’ve never heard before. You’re going to appointments you’ve never been to before. Things are happening to your body that feel weird.

‘It’s all a blur to me looking back. I remember some things like coming back home and smelling the chemotherapy on my skin. I love smells so that was terrible, I hated that.’

Samantha was relieved to hear she was cancer-free five months after her diagnosis – but admits the disease could have been a ‘death sentence’ if discovered any later.

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world and affects more than two MILLION women a year

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. Each year in the UK there are more than 55,000 new cases, and the disease claims the lives of 11,500 women. In the US, it strikes 266,000 each year and kills 40,000. But what causes it and how can it be treated?

What is breast cancer?

It comes from a cancerous cell which develops in the lining of a duct or lobule in one of the breasts.

When the breast cancer has spread into surrounding tissue it is called ‘invasive’. Some people are diagnosed with ‘carcinoma in situ’, where no cancer cells have grown beyond the duct or lobule.

Most cases develop in those over the age of 50 but younger women are sometimes affected. Breast cancer can develop in men, though this is rare.

Staging indicates how big the cancer is and whether it has spread. Stage 1 is the earliest stage and stage 4 means the cancer has spread to another part of the body.

The cancerous cells are graded from low, which means a slow growth, to high, which is fast-growing. High-grade cancers are more likely to come back after they have first been treated.

What causes breast cancer?

A cancerous tumour starts from one abnormal cell. The exact reason why a cell becomes cancerous is unclear. It is thought that something damages or alters certain genes in the cell. This makes the cell abnormal and multiply ‘out of control’.

Although breast cancer can develop for no apparent reason, there are some risk factors that can increase the chance, such as genetics.

What are the symptoms of breast cancer?

The usual first symptom is a painless lump in the breast, although most are not cancerous and are fluid-filled cysts, which are benign. 

The first place that breast cancer usually spreads to is the lymph nodes in the armpit. If this occurs you will develop a swelling or lump in an armpit.

How is breast cancer diagnosed?

• Initial assessment: A doctor examines the breasts and armpits. They may do tests such as a mammogram, a special X-ray of the breast tissue which can indicate the possibility of tumours.
• Biopsy: A biopsy is when a small sample of tissue is removed from a part of the body. The sample is then examined under a microscope to look for abnormal cells. The sample can confirm or rule out cancer.

If you are confirmed to have breast cancer, further tests may be needed to assess if it has spread. For example, blood tests, an ultrasound scan of the liver or a chest X-ray.

How is breast cancer treated?

Treatment options which may be considered include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone treatment. Often a combination of two or more of these treatments are used.

• Surgery: Breast-conserving surgery or the removal of the affected breast depending on the size of the tumour.
• Radiotherapy: A treatment which uses high energy beams of radiation focused on cancerous tissue. This kills cancer cells, or stops them from multiplying. It is mainly used in addition to surgery.
• Chemotherapy: A treatment of cancer by using anti-cancer drugs which kill cancer cells, or stop them from multiplying.
• Hormone treatments: Some types of breast cancer are affected by the ‘female’ hormone oestrogen, which can stimulate the cancer cells to divide and multiply. Treatments which reduce the level of these hormones, or prevent them from working, are commonly used in people with breast cancer.

How successful is treatment?

The outlook is best in those who are diagnosed when the cancer is still small, and has not spread. Surgical removal of a tumour in an early stage may then give a good chance of cure.

The routine mammography offered to women between the ages of 50 and 71 means more breast cancers are being diagnosed and treated at an early stage.

For more information visit breastcancernow.org or call its free helpline on 0808 800 6000