Former Hollyoaks star Lysette Anthony has revealed that she's been secretly battling Parkinson's for the last six years.
The 58-year-old, who was famously sacked from the Channel 4 soap, opened up about the first symptoms she noticed, which included shaking while she was trying to light a cigarette.
After keeping her diagnosis a secret, the actress explained why she wanted to speak out about it.
She told OK! : "I decided to, well, brave it and speak out now because there is no cure and I need to be a part of the cure, but also because my symptoms have got worse."
She said in a heartbreaking video for the site that she'd also avoided speaking out before over fears that she could lose her job.
But after being sacked from the soap and seeing her character Marnie Nightingale killed off, she realised it was time to open up.
Lysette said when she began noticing symptoms, she heard comedian Sir Billy Connolly talking about his life with the condition on Desert Island Discs when she realised "that's what I've got".
Lysette said she was diagnosed with Parkinson's the same week she landed her role in Hollyoaks.
She said: "I've made my peace in many ways, in terms of I now call my add-on Parky. If I do too much it will basically shut me down and paralyse my, or my hands won't work.
"At Christmas I did really think I was dying when the things were really bad, it was so bad."
Lysette described something called "freezing" which she said sees her unable to move before getting a "rush of smoke and sound in your ears". She explained how she'll then fall to the ground and that it happened to her one day on the set of Hollyoaks, but that she soldiered on and "didn't miss a scene".
Getting tearful, she said: "Nobody deserves to be humiliated and to feel scared that they're going to lose and they're not going to able to look after their child."
The mum-of-one spoke of how "tough" the whole thing had been on her son, Jimmy, who she said has been "amazing".
She said her son was just 11 when they relocated for her job in Hollyoaks and that she had to explain to him that he wasn't allowed to tell anyone she had Parkinson's.
Lysette said the only person on set who knew about her diagnosis was Greg Finnegan, who played her son.
And she said: "Now that I've accepted it, it is such a relief not to have to hide it anymore."
Lysette now hopes to make a documentary about her condition.
* Watch the full video on OK!
