Emmerdale’s Kathy star pays emotional tribute to dog who discovered her breast cancer

Emmerdale star Malandra Burrows believes her dog saved her life after it alerted her to a lump in her breast.

The 58-year-old actress, who played Kathy Glover on the ITV soap from 1985 to 2005 on and off, was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer in February 2022. She received the devastating news from doctors just a month after finding the lump.

As Chas Dingle (played by Lucy Pargeter) embarks on her own breast cancer journey on the long-running soap, Daily Star has taken a deep dive inside the actresses’ battle just two years ago. Speaking to The Mirror, the blonde bombshell explained how one evening her border collie Teddy refused to settle and kept bumping its head against her chest.She told the publication: “She just kept looking up at me, staring in a very strange way, then without any warning she thumped me with her head on my left breast so hard it brought tears to my eyes.

“It hurt so much that before I went to bed I checked to see if there was any bruising, which was the moment I felt something that had never been there before. It felt like a swollen gland, which I put down to Teddy’s blow.”

At the time, Malandra decided to give it the weekend to see if the mass would go down, but the lump was still enlarged and painful on Sunday night. The actor called the GP first thing on Monday morning who insisted she come into the surgery right away, which ultimately led to her cancer diagnosis.

The TV star gushed: “If it were not for Teddy, I would have never known about this and I honestly believe she saved my life.” A week after her GP visit, Malandra was initially told the lump was just a cyst but a follow-up ultrasound confirmed the condition.

Days later, she was rushed into hospital where she was met by a Macmillan nurse who said she nearly broke down telling her the news. Despite the horrific news, the star remained positive and underwent chemotherapy treatment six months later.

At the time, the soap star didn’t cry when she heard the shocking news about her health because she had “galvanised herself”. However, she added that her body went into a sort of shock in a previous interview with OK! Magazine: “When I got my diagnosis, I felt like I was back in a soap and in a storyline.

“I didn’t feel like I was breaking down, but I just couldn’t eat or do anything. There was something in the back of my mind that knew what was going on inside my body.”

Doctors have said that the cancer may have been sparked when she entered the menopause. Malandra, who has previously list friends to breast cancer in the past, said she was meant to have a routine mammogram back in 2020 that was cancelled due to the global pandemic.

The blonde bombshell has continued to fight the condition and is going from strength to strength since then. Emmerdale airs on weekdays on ITV1 from 7.30pm or catch up on ITVX.