Former Emmerdale star Leah Bracknell shares emotional poem about cancer battle

Former Emmerdale star Leah Bracknell has shared a touching poem online, as she continues to battle cancer.

The 53-year-old actress - who played Zoe Tate in the ITV soap for 16 years until 2005 - was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in September 2016.

She has now posted a moving poem on Facebook - which Bracknell is thought to have written herself - in which she mentions "the pain" and says a "sky full of blessings" is headed her way.

It says: "I got me a butterfly net to catch me all the love and beauty and wishes and dreams and black cat kinda luck.

"And fire in my belly, honey in my heart kind of memories that melt my sweet heart and take away the pain.

"I spy me a sky full of blessings coming my way.

"Net at the ready, I raise my head for a kiss. And here they come."

Accompanying the words is a painting of a woman trying to catch butterflies in a net.

Bracknell's fans helped her to raise more than £50,000 to undergo ground-breaking treatment in Germany after an appeal was launched on donations website gofundme.com following her diagnosis last year.

The mother-of-two currently writes a blog about her journey entitled Something Beginning With C and recently shared a photograph of herself looking frail as she enjoyed a walk.

A post written in May says: "Every morning, I open my eyes, and the first thing I say to myself is: Thank you for my life. Every damn bit of it. Why not? I am alive, I have my family, a roof over my head, food in my belly, and love and support. That makes me pretty rich.

"Thank you for my life. Thank you for my Life."