Lynda Bellingham dead: Loose Women presenter, OXO mum and actress dies after battle with colon cancer
Bellingham revealed last month that she planned to end her chemotherapy. She was expecting to survive until after Christmas
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Your support makes all the difference.Lynda Bellingham has died.
The Loose Women presenter passed away on Sunday "in her husband's arms", according to her agent Sue Latimer.
Bellingham revealed last month that she planned to end her chemotherapy for colon cancer, which she has been battling since July 2013.
"Lynda died peacefully in her husband's arms yesterday at a London hospital," a statement read.
"Her family would like to thank the nurses and staff for their tremendous care and support.
"Actor, writer and presenter - to the end Lynda was a consummate professional."
She was expecting to live until January 2015, and had planned to spend one last Christmas with her family.
Bellingham had just recorded her final Loose Women appearance on 8 October.
Asked by Coleen Nolan how she'd best like to be remembered, she said: "Just an honest person."
"We’ve been through this as Loose Women - you can’t do Loose Women unless you’re honest," she continued.
"You can’t hide anything, it really is honest when we answer questions.
"Trust is a huge thing. Not just as an actor, not just as a lover, not just as a wife, that trust thing. Just to say 'you could trust her'.
The show, set to be broadcast on Wednesday, ended with the audience giving her a standing ovation, according to the Daily Mail.
The actress, 66, who is best known for playing the mother in the Oxo TV adverts, wrote in her newly published autobiography, serialised in the Mail on Sunday, that she would stop taking chemotherapy in November after the cancer spread to her lungs and liver.
In excerpts printed in the paper, she wrote: "August 13, 2014. Yesterday was the glorious 12th - a day for us to remember because it is also the day I decided when I will die. I am very dramatic, aren't I?
"I know it is not ultimately my decision, but it is my last vestige of control to sit in front of the oncologist and say when I would like to stop having chemo and let the natural way do its thing.
"I sat down with Michael and Professor Stebbing and announced: 'The time has come to cease and desist. I would love to make one more Christmas, if possible, but I want to stop taking chemo around November in order to pass away by the end of January'."
Speaking about how he was going to cope after Bellingham's death, her husband Michael Pattemore told Your magazine last month: "The past 10 years with Lynda have been the best of my life.
"She's so funny when she’s telling her jokes and so genuinely kind, not to mention so talented.
"And she’s probably one of the most loving mothers I've ever seen.
"I am the most positive-thinking guy in the world.
"Unfortunately it doesn't matter how positive I am on this one, the Good Lord is going to take her.
"End of. It's scary and it’s going to create the biggest hole in my life.
"I just don't know what the next few weeks will bring or how I'm going to cope.
"The only thing that’s giving me comfort is that Lynda is very much at peace with everything – we've managed to sort everything out.
"I just pray to God she gets to see Christmas Day again. It’s what she wants."
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