A PENDLE actress who starred in an emotional BBC drama about a woman’s journey with breast cancer says she felt privileged to help re-tell her story.

Amy Simpson, who goes by the stage name Amy Strange, from Colne played the part of Ellie in a one-off special The C Word which aired on BBC One on Sunday night.

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The drama was an adaptation of Lisa Lynch’s candid book about her experience of cancer, based on her popular blog which was launched shortly after her diagnosis in 2008.

Amy auditioned for the show, which stared Sheridan Smith as Lisa, back in June 2013 and started filming her scenes in Brighton a few weeks later.

She said: “Lisa Lynch started a blog called Alright Tit when she found out she had cancer. Her blog became so popular that she wrote a book which was a bit of a self help book to help others going through the same thing and it became really popular throughout the country.

“Lisa found good friends in three women of similar age all diagnosed with breast cancer. I play the part of one of these women, Ellie.

“It was only a small part but I felt privileged to help tell the story of these women and help break down the taboo of talking about breast cancer.”

Lisa Lynch worked closely with writer Nicole Taylor and the BBC Drama Production team on the 90-minute show and approached Sheridan to play her character.

But sadly Lisa died before filming.

Amy added: “The scenes I was in three of the women including Lisa meet up on the beach and toast their friend who has died.

“It was really emotional to shoot as in real life it never happened. The women had planned to meet up but another of the women died and then Lisa got really ill.

“One of the women, the only survivor of the four Kris Hallenga played herself which made it even more touching.”

After the show The C-Word went to number one in the Amazon book sales chart.