Former EastEnders actress Melanie Clark Pullen has died following a battle with cancer.
The star, who played Pauline Fowler's niece Mary Flaherty, was diagnosed with cancer in January 2019. In 2020, she was given the all-clear, telling The Irish News: "I got the all clear. I'm cancer free, which is great, so now it's all about recovery."
However, just a year later she revealed she had a brain tumour. At the time she said: "I was only given the all clear from cancer 18 months ago and it's a cruel blow to think that I will now be starting into some kind of treatment again and that this time it will be long term and a permanent fixture of my life."
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Melanie kept her fans up to date with her journey, and posted about it as recently as March 14, the Mirror reports. In her last post, the star can be seen looking full of joy as she visited her family.
She played the role of Mary Flaherty in the long-running BBC soap. Pauline discovered she had a sister in Ireland in 1997 and the Fowlers took a trip to meet her. Mary came back to live in Walford and was close to Pauline and her cousin Mark.
Melanie appeared in a series of other shows over the years, including Doctors and Casualty. Most recently, she starred in Aisling Bea's Channel 4 comedy This Way Up.
Tributes have piled in for the tragic actress. Former EastEnders co-star Andrew Lynford, who played Tiffany Mitchell's brother, Simon Raymond, wrote on Twitter: "How sad to hear we have lost one of the gang. RIP dear Melanie."
Broadcaster Maia Dunphy wrote: "Our funny, beautiful, eccentric, creative Goddess Melanie Clark Pullen is gone. What a force of nature, & most importantly, what a Mama. Your words and your babies live on. Our love and thoughts are with Simon."
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