Sara Coward: Archers actress dies of cancer aged 69
Tributes have been paid to The Archers actress Sara Coward following her death to cancer at the age of 69.
Coward had played Caroline Sterling on the much-loved BBC Radio 4 drama since 1977.
Announcing her death, Archers editor Huw Kennair-Jones described her as a "gifted actress with a unique voice".
Co-stars Annette Badland, who plays Hazel Woolley, and Susie Riddell, who plays Tracy Horrobin, added tributes along with the show's writer-producer Keri Davies.
Coward learned of her terminal cancer last year after finding a lump on her neck and swelling in her right arm.
Speaking to the Radio Times earlier this year from her palliative care home in Leamington Spa, she said: "I would prefer it to be over quickly."
She learned of the diagnosis shortly after recovering from breast cancer and a mastectomy.
She also told the Radio Times she hoped the character of Caroline would not be written out of the show.
"I'd like them to find someone else to play her," she said.
As well as her celebrated radio role, Coward was a writer and stage actor.
She also spent eight years working for the Samaritans charity in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Coward spent the last months of her life trying to leave the world "a kinder place" as she launched a social media campaign - Sm:)e - from her Warwickshire hospice.
"Make someone feel good today just by being kind," she wrote on Facebook.
"This can be as easy as simply sm:)ing at people, or doing something more to help them in some way. And finding out how good you feel as a result."