Samantha Womack showed off the chest tattoo she got after battling breast cancer when out with her friend Estelle Maslen in London last week.
Former EastEnders cast member Samantha, 51, first revealed the tattoo in May last year, after being told she was cancer-free in December 2022.
The actress was spotted in the UK capital this week wearing a white cotton shirt with a plunging neckline under a black jacket.
Her low-cut top meant her black body art showed in the center of her chest.
She completed her look by wearing a pair of baggy black pants and carried a beige clutch with her.
Samantha Womack showed off the chest tattoo she got after battling breast cancer when out with her friend Estelle Maslen in London last week.
Samantha appeared in good spirits, smiling as she walked alongside her friend Estelle, who is the wife of actor Scott Maslen, who plays Jack Branning in EastEnders.
Samantha appeared in good spirits, smiling as she walked alongside her friend Estelle, who is the wife of actor Scott Maslen, who plays Jack Branning in EastEnders.
She was seen having a video call with her boyfriend, actor Oliver Farnworth, 41, while walking.
The former soap opera star revealed that she was breast cancer-free in December 2022, five months after her diagnosis.
At the time he was receiving radiotherapy “to try to destroy the leftover cells” and was receiving “ongoing treatment” as prevention.
She said OK! magazine at that time: ‘Now I’m just receiving treatment to return to work, as prevention… We feel much better than we were.
‘My treatment is ongoing for breast cancer. It was quite difficult to recover from the surgery simply because it is quite painful when the lymph nodes are removed. At first there are some mobility problems.’
She recalled: “The first round of chemotherapy was quite harsh, quite toxic,” before adding: “I have radiotherapy for a while to try to destroy the leftover cells.”
In November 2022, Samantha revealed that she was found to have breast cancer during a “random check” and said the disease had “attacked” her “femininity.”
The actress was spotted in the UK capital this week wearing a white cotton shirt with a plunging neckline under a black jacket.
She was seen having a video call with her boyfriend, actor Oliver Farnworth, 41, while walking.
Speaking on This Morning, Samantha said she didn’t find any lumps when she was diagnosed four months earlier, and said her cancer was discovered at a random check.
“It was really amazing because I didn’t find any lumps, I didn’t feel bad,” she explained.
“There had been a lot of illnesses among our friends and family and I thought about having a random check-up and an ultrasound, and it showed a little shadow; at that time it could be anything, a cyst… so I had more investigations and then that diagnosis .
Samantha described herself as “very lucky” because the lump was less than 2cm and she was able to have a lumpectomy to remove the piece of tissue and five lymph nodes.
She went on to describe breast cancer as a disease that “attacks” her “body” and her “femininity” and urged other women to get checked.
Former EastEnders cast member Samantha, 51, first revealed the tattoo in May last year after being told she was cancer-free in December 2022.
She said: ‘Breast cancer is strange, it attacks your body and your femininity, your hair, your breasts, all these beautiful women of all ages.
‘Many women should check themselves when they are in their thirties. That is an important message that we must also spread and verify.”
He also described the fight against cancer as “scary” but praised the treatments that are now available to treat the disease.
Samantha previously announced she had “begun her battle” against the disease as she paid tribute to Olivia Newton-John, who died aged 73 after a long battle with cancer.
Explaining why she revealed her news that way, she said: “I always had a pretty precarious relationship with what you share on social media, but you also challenged yourself, thinking, ‘Am I doing this because I want likes or am I doing this because is there a genuine intention behind it?”
Samantha previously said she ‘longs’ to have more children after surviving breast cancer, which has made her want to ‘celebrate life’ (pictured with boyfriend Oliver Farnworth).
“So at first I was like, ‘I don’t know if it’s the right thing to do,’ and then Lily, my daughter, was in the kitchen with Ollie. [Samantha’s partner] cooking and read about Olivia Newton John, and was talking on the phone.
‘She just read it in the kitchen and I had been with Olivia, just for dinner after a show she had done, she had played Sandy in Grease.
“It was right at the beginning of her diagnosis and what struck me was that her journey had been 30 years long and she was at the end and I was just at the beginning, and that took me back; I was very moved by that…
“I thought, ‘I want to share it. I want to talk to people. “I want to publish it” and the love that came back to me was incredible. I felt strengthened by it.