Emmerdale soap star Liam Fox’s fiancée, Joanna Hudson, has revealed how a health battle left her close to death.
The soap star, known for playing Dan Spencer in Emmerdale since 2011, took to Twitter to announce his engagement to Joanna in April.
But now Joanna has revealed the sad news of how she came close to death following an autoimmune disease called myasthenia gravis, in 2015.
Speaking exclusively to OK! Magazine, 44-year-old Joanna reveals the rare illness nearly took her life.
She said: ‘I was seriously ill in 2015 and nearly lost my life, which makes me appreciate what I have with Liam even more.
‘I nearly died from a tumour; when it was discovered, I was weeks away from death.
‘I realised something was wrong when I started getting double vision so I went to Specsavers who gave me glasses, but that didn’t help.
‘I was eventually referred to a consultant and was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis [a rare autoimmune disease that causes muscle weakness].
‘The consultant gave me a scan, which discovered I had a tumour caused by the illness growing on my thymus gland [near the heart], which would’ve killed me if it wasn’t discovered. I had it removed and three months later I was fully recovered!
‘At the time it totally consumed me, I was terrified, but now I don’t think about it much.
After the terrifying ordeal, Joanna revealed she decided to raise money for charity by hosting a music event called Woofstock for a rescue dog charity called Many Tears.
She also said how having Liam’s support throughout the whole situation made her see what a ‘great guy’ he is.
At the time of their engagement the happy couple had been dating for about 18 months.
However, the pair actually met each other more than 25 years ago while studying media and performance together at Salford University.
You can read the full story in this week’s OK! Magazine, which is out on Tuesday.
