Lynda Bellingham: my cancer is just a 'temporary blip' I could have hugged him. It's the mantra I've since repeated every day to myself. Mrs Bellingham, who is well known for her role on Loose Women as well her part in All Creatures Great and Small, refuses to disclose what type of cancer she has, however, as she is "not ready to share the intimate details of all that at the moment." She said: "It's early days. It's been a lot to absorb and I'd like to hang on to something so private, something that remains mine and mine alone. I'm of the era of people who believe not every detail of your life has to be in the media. Nowadays, people share absolutely everything. But she has revealed that she is undergoing a course of chemotherapy, and has faith that the treatment will work. She is also doing everything else she can to improve her chances, eating healthily and taking a one-mile walk each day. "This isn't how I thought the year would pan out, but I see this as a temporary blip," she said. The tour of the play she was due to perform in will be postponed until next year, and the mother-of-two is looking forward to it "more than I can say." Looking even further ahead, she still hopes to win an Oscar one day as well, she says. Yet she was not impervious to the seriousness of the news of her illness, admitting that nothing can really prepare you for being told you have cancer. "As soon as I heard the word applied to me, it was hard to take in anything else," she said. Daniel Evans, the artistic director of Sheffield Theatre, said after Mrs Bellingham's diagnosis was announced: "A Passionate Woman is an extraordinary play about an extraordinary woman, and that woman is Lynda Bellingham.