2 days Ago By Yahoo TV UK
star has told how she was left in so much debt that she needed to use a food bank as he "life paralleled Heather Trott's". Fergison played Heather in the BBC soap for five years and was well known to viewers as one of the stars of Albert Square, but fell on hard times when her TV role came to an end, she was diagnosed with cancer, and she claimed she was "conned out of a humongous amount of money". The actor praised food bank staff as "angels" in an appearance on Tuesday's and also told how some of EastEnders' biggest names had helped her out at her lowest point.
Cheryl Fergison might be well known to many as EastEnders' Heather Trott, but the former soap star has opened up to This Morning on what it was like to have to use a food bank because of spiralling debts and the cost of living crisis. Fergison starred in the BBC One soap from 2007 to 2012, but said that her own life ended up paralleling her character's as she struggled to afford her bills after her role came to an end. She said that she thought people would find it hard to understand how she had ended up needing a food bank, saying: "That's the perception for everybody - when you're on the telly you're earning loads of money.
I was earning a good wage then. I'd always lived on council estates, I hadn't been brought up with money and we'd never managed money very well as a family." Fergison told how a lot of her money had been "frittered away" on treating loved ones to holidays and gifts, adding of her time on EastEnders: "You think you're going to be there forever and ever like the lovely Steve McFadden and you're not, you don't know how long you've got.
" The actor hinted at further financial issues which she said she was not currently able to talk about publicly, adding: "The only word I can use is that I was conned out of a humongous amount of money...
I was robbing Peter to pay Paul, getting into debt." She said she had been left feeling like she was living out one of Heather's storylines, saying: "My life paralleled her a little bit, including things like going to the food bank which is something that Heather would have done." Recalling her visit to the food bank after visiting Citizens Advice for help with managing her bills, she said: "To this day, I cannot get that image and what happened to me out of my mind.
It was so bittersweet." She said of the Citizens Advice worker: "She took my hand, we walked through this door and there were men and women with boxes and bags, they were like little angel bees. It doesn't matter if they knew me or not, they never ever showed it.
"I was sobbing and thought 'why am I here? I've been on the television, I've been in people's front rooms'." Fergison said that staff had even given her a bunch of daffodils to brighten up her home and added: "If I had to go there again, I would. I have been back to say thank you.
" She said: "I have felt down the settee and gone, 'oh there's 50p! Brilliant!' It doesn't matter who you are, whether you've been on the telly, whether you're a politician - nurses use food banks. That to me is like, what?" After Fergison left EastEnders in 2012, she was hit by some devastating health news that added to her financial struggles. She was diagnosed with stage two womb cancer in 2015 and although she is now doing well, she told how her former co-stars had rallied round to help her out at her lowest.
Fergison said: "The lovely late, great Barbara Windsor and Scott were getting cheque books out and writing them to me to pay my bills. "Steve McFadden was giving me places to recuperate, Linda Henry was helping out, June Brown..
.everybody, they were very, very, very kind and helped me out a lot.".
