Former Eastenders star Wendy Richard is reportedly planning to marry her long-term partner before beginning a course of chemotherapy next week.

Yesterday Wendy confirmed reports that her breast cancer had returned for a third time earlier this year and now doctors have discovered the disease has spread to her right kidney and bones.

She explained: “Twice I’ve had breast cancer but this is different. It’s more aggressive this time, unfortunately and has spread to the top of my spine and left ribs.

“It has come as a terrible shock and you just get so fed up. You think ‘oh crikey, here we go again’ but you just have to buck your ideas up and get on with things.

“Some nights I just wanted to scream the place down. It didn’t matter whether you lay down, stood up, sat down - the pain was just there all the time. I’m up to 12 [tablets a day] and I have to have injections in my stomach every day.

“My message to anyone going through the cancer thing is to remain positive and have faith in your oncologist and doctors.”

She has already written her will and made detailed plans for her own funeral, including the music she’d like played and who she would like to attend.

Wendy has already written her will and made detailed plans for her funeral - and now is planning to marry her partner of 13 years, John Burns: “You’ve got to be practical about these things. I want all my affairs to be in order.

“We were going to get married anyway but when we got the diagnosis we decided to push ahead and get married now. There was no rush before. All I want is a pain-free day and to be able to laugh.”

John added: “It will be one day when we can hopefully put Wendy’s illness to the side because it has been a very turbulent time.”

Wendy played Pauline Fowler in the soap between 1985 and 2006.