Strictly's Alex Kingston reveals secret cancer battle and diagnosis after haemorrhaging on stage

Alex Kingston has revealed she is in recovery after battling uterine cancer in secret last year.

Strictly Come Dancing star Alex, who is partnered with Johannes Radebe in this year's series, received her devastating diagnosis last year after she "haemorrhaged" on stage while performing in a play at Chichester Festival last summer. Initially, Alex had written off her symptoms, which included bloating and aching, as "old age" and she "just sort of accepted it" – however she now knows that what she was experiencing was symptoms of her illness.

After her diagnosis which she described as a "shock", the former ER star, 62, then underwent a hysterectomy and radiation therapy and she has now spoken about her health crisis for the first time.

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Recalling the moment she haemorrhaged, Alex revealed: "That was really shocking."

She added: "I just knocked my knees together and prayed that it would soak everything up." The actress was dressed in a Tudor dress with kneepads and praised her wardrobe team as "incredible". She added: "I ran off stage and said, ‘Grab me some pads!’ We shoved some pads in my pants and I went back on stage and carried on. That was how we finished the show."

Alex then waited until the six-week run of the play was over before she went for further tests and investigations, in which she later received her shattering diagnosis. Doctors then found cancer in her fallopian tubes but it hadn't spread to her ovaries. She later underwent a hysterectomy and radiation therapy.

She told The Independent newspaper: "I had a major operation. I had to have a hysterectomy, I had to go into radiation therapy, and that took up a huge part of my life ..."

Alex added: "I never went down the cancer road in my head. It was a shock, because I have a very positive outlook on life in general. Even though my body was telling me there was something very seriously wrong, I kept thinking: 'Oh, I’ve got a bad UTI or fibroids'."

Speaking about life after her diagnosis and treatment, Alex revealed: "Despite having gone through all of that – and any cancer is really tough to accept, to steel yourself to go through all of the necessary procedures to get back into health – the minute I had the operation, I suddenly felt like myself again ... [I] hadn’t felt like that for years."

Now, Alex feels "like Superwoman" as she takes part in the latest series of Strictly Come Dancing.

The actress now wants to urge others to seek medical advice about any mysterious symptoms they may experience.

She said: "Womb cancer is really tricky because it is so sneaky. What I would say is, the body does know – and that was the body saying to me: ‘Help! There’s something really wrong."

'It’s so important to seek advice and have a check-up."

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