EastEnders star Heather Peace has opened up on why she filmed wedding scenes in the BBC soap just hours after receiving her cancer diagnosis.

Last month, the Eve Unwin-Panesar actor revealed she had undergone surgery and would be having chemotherapy after being diagnosed with breast cancer in October.

She has since shared that her wife, Ellie Dickinson, had also been diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year (per The Mirror) and had a lumpectomy and then radiotherapy.

Despite her health issues, Heather continued to film scenes in EastEnders, including her character’s wedding with Suki Panesar.

Sharing why she carried on with her busy work schedule, she told Gaby Roslin on her podcast how she wanted to make sure she concluded Suki and Eve’s story, as she believed she was going to die.

“We got back to Brighton at 7 o’clock, and I was on the road at 10 past five that morning, to Elstree, to start possibly the two biggest weeks that I’ve done on EastEnders,” she began.

She described this time filming as “the worst” and said she felt like “a dead woman walking”.

Heather said she told her EastEnders co-workers about her diagnosis, and was told she “didn’t need to come in” while processing the news and undergoing treatment.

“I said ‘I need to come in’ because at this point I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she continued.

“And I want to finish this arc of the story. Not coming in for the next two weeks is not going to change anything, but at least let me put the full stop on a story that’s been playing out for nearly two and a half years.”

“If we get to the end of that and we see them get married and we see them successful, if beyond that it’s a mess, I can leave and feel like I’ve put a full stop on something.”

When asked by Gaby if she felt like “that was it” for her, Heather said she did not think she would survive.

“The reason I thought that was because of how big it [the cancer] was. Everybody was visibly shocked,” she said.

After waiting for CT scan results for three weeks, thankfully, Heather learned that the cancer had not spread.