In a new post on her blog “Something Beginning with C,” Leah Bracknell has opened up about her journey with terminal lung cancer. She has talked about her will to save her life and explained her incredible approach to the condition as a “cancer rebel.”
Bracknell, who played Zoe Tate in Emmerdale, said that the idea of being a “cancer rebel” was inspired by taking part in the Extinction Rebellion climate change protests in London.
The former Emmerdale actress said, “It really sparked something very deep inside, after several difficult months. I saw my own life reflected as a microcosm of the bigger picture: there we were in our thousands, from all walks of life: pensioners, students, mothers, fathers, teenagers, families – ‘rebels’ committing acts of non-violent civil disobedience in order to save the fragile balance of life on earth. Before time runs out.”
She went on to compare her cancer journey with to the fight against climatic changes. Leah said, “Life on earth faces extinction and the hourglass is almost empty. It’s almost midnight. For me too. Time is running out.”
The actress added, “I reject the expected notion of being passive or a patient or of being a victim, and I am prepared to try almost anything to ‘save’ my life, even if, like the XR rebels it means breaking the law, just a little. Besides, I ain’t got nothing to lose.”
Leah has also written about making cannabis oil at home in the past, as part of her treatment. She said she started using cannabis oil after getting discharged from hospital in 2016. She explained that cannabis oil helped the side effects she experienced with the prescription drugs that she took for her condition.
Bracknell previously wrote on her blog about the “hopeless future” of being told that there was nothing more doctors could do to treat her condition.
She told her readers, “Conventional medicine has nothing left to offer until a glimmer of hope was thrown into the ring last year with a trial placement. That notwithstanding, and in the face of a hopeless future, I realised that what I did have, and probably always have had, was me.”
Bracknell continued, “My mind, my spirit, and a willingness, or rather – no choice, than to turn away from the fear that was enveloping me, and embrace the mystery, to welcome the medicine that lies beyond the parameters of traditional thinking which requires material proof.”
She was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 2016 and was told she had just eight months to live. In 2017, the actress, during a rare TV appearance after her diagnosis, told the Loose Women panel about the positive effect she had on her life after getting diagnosed. She said, “I don’t wake up every morning feeling fearful, I wake up feeling grateful and excited about life.”
