Former EastEnders star Cheryl Fergison has

opened up about her secret battle with womb cancer.

The actor, who played Heather Trott on the BBC

One soap from 2007 to 2012, has revealed that she

was diagnosed with Stage Two womb cancer in 2015 after attending a smear test.

“I’d gone for a regular smear test – which had been clear – but I’d started having a lot of backache and then I began spotting blood, which wasn’t normal for me,” she explained in a new interview with the Mirror.

“I had been fitted with a coil to help with very heavy periods but somehow I just knew something didn’t feel right.”

Related: EastEnders fans remind Cheryl Fergison of show twist in hilarious birthday tribute

Fourth months after undergoing multiple tests and a biopsy at the hospital, she received her cancer diagnosis.

“I was in absolute shock; stunned to the core. I couldn’t believe the doctor was talking about me,” she recalled.

The former Celebrity Big Brother contestant said she was eventually recommended for a full hysterectomy, taking away any hopes of having children with her husband Yassine.

“I’d not long married Yassine and suddenly any thought of having a child together had been taken away. We may not have gone down that route, of course, but we’d lost the ability to choose,” she shared.

“It brought on early menopause too; in terms of how I saw myself as a woman, it felt as if it had all come to an end. It was a horrendous time.”