Emmerdale actress Leah Bracknell was dreaming about flying away on a dragon before her death.
The spiritual 55-year-old battled lung cancer and died in September, according to her manager.
She starred in Emmerdale from 1989-2005 where she played Zoe Tate, the first lesbian on a British soap.
Leah's mind was turning to the fantastical in her final weeks as she posted a touching Instagram upload last month.
It featured a picture from Avatar, an animated sci-fi film about aliens protecting their planet from humans.
One of the aliens is riding on a huge dragon-type beast across the skyline.
She wrote alongside it: "In my wildest dreams I would ride a dragon to save the world and defend our home.
"And remember what’s important. ( actually I’d settle for riding me a dragon for starters. Baby steps!) xx".
"Defending our home" was likely a reference to protecting the planet from climate, a cause Leah stood for.
In one of her blogs, she called herself a "cancer rebel", which she said was a term inspired by the Extinction Rebellion protests.
In her blog she wrote: “It really sparked something very deep inside, after several difficult months,” she admitted.
“I saw my own life reflected as a microcosm of the bigger picture: there we were in our thousands, from all walks of life: pensioners, students, mothers, fathers, teenagers, families – ‘rebels’ committing acts of non-violent civil disobedience in order to save the fragile balance of life on earth.
"Before time runs out.”
Leah was a spiritual person who credited positive thinking with helping her to defy cancer for as long as she did.
She first announced her diagnosis in September 2016.
Speaking in August, she said: "People think, ‘Oh, she’s crazy’, but I believe in thinking outside the box.
"Medical science is an amazing thing and it is keeping me alive, but it has limitations because it is to do with the logical mind.
“But things we call miracles, things we don’t understand, happen all the time, they happen outside the realms of logic and scientific data.
"Nobody knows why they happen, but it is possible for the impossible to happen. I still hope I could get my impossible miracle.
"And if not, I am going to have a bloody good time along the way.
“I don’t need to go and fulfil a bucket list, that’s not my style, I just want to do the things I want to do while I am healthy and strong, I won’t let myself live in fear, I’m just going to live a good life.”
Leah is survived by her two daughters, Lily and Maya, from her marriage to Lyall Watson, and her partner, Jez Hughes.
