Seated in a busy café, television favourite Cheryl Fergison delicately takes sips of her coffee.

It’s not the temperature of the beverage that’s causing the former EastEnders star to be so careful, but rather the fact she requires both hands to grasp the cup – her right hand too unsteady on its own following a stroke.

“I would say it was probably one of the lowest times in my life,” reveals the 59 year old actress, discussing the devastating illness that hit in May.

“One of the hardest things is to process what it does to you. One minute you’re walking, talking, going to the shops; the next your world is rocked. It’s shocking.”

In an exclusive chat with the Mirror before the launch of her explosive new memoir, Behind The Scenes, the mother-of-one – famous for playing beloved Heather Trott in the BBC soap – describes how she was at home watching television when she first noticed something wasn’t right.

“I started to feel funny, with a really bad headache at the back of my head.

“I went to bed but couldn’t settle. When I got up in the night to go to the bathroom, my balance completely went and I had to stop myself from falling over. My whole right side felt numb, heavy and tingly.”

Panicking about what was happening, Cheryl rang her son Alex.

“He worked with elderly people and recognised the symptoms. He phoned an ambulance straight away.”

Cheryl, who underwent surgery for womb cancer in 2015, was taken urgently to hospital in Blackpool where medics confirmed she had experienced a stroke. The illness left her unable to walk – it initially took three people just to help her to the toilet – and she still uses a stick.

“I have had to retrain my brain. I couldn’t even pick up a penny at first,” says Cheryl, who lives in Cleveleys, Lancashire.

“You lose the ability to coordinate your hands, to walk properly, your balance is gone. It’s frustrating and makes you angry. But I’ve started to recover; I am coming on in leaps and bounds now.”

Still having physiotherapy, she admits being ill has given her pause to reflect, especially as she is about to turn 60.

“Material things don’t matter; they can be lost or broken, but memories are everything. Friends, family and laughter – that’s all that matters.

“Going into this new decade is a chance for a new me. I’m not ready to be put out to graze yet.”

Her candid memoir is filled with that characteristic fighting spirit – a spirit pushed to breaking point when she was left without a penny, devastated and drowning in debt after being conned by her own accountant.

The actress – who just last year confessed she was forced to rely on food banks – says she was “gobsmacked” to discover she owed hundreds of thousands of pounds to the taxman after her accountant had been pocketing her money for five years.

She discovered the crushing news in 2012, at what should have been one of the most joyful periods of her life. “I’d just walked out of the Celebrity Big Brother house,” Cheryl recalls.

“I was on such a high; I’d been paid £175,000. I felt excited, positive – like the future was finally opening up,” explains the star, who had married her Moroccan husband Yassine El Jamouni, who is 20 years her junior, just months earlier.

“My phone just kept pinging. Some messages were congratulations but others were from people I knew in the entertainment industry. One read, ‘We are in big trouble. Ring me. It’s about our accountant.’ That was the moment my entire world collapsed.”

The individual Cheryl had entrusted with her money had appeared completely trustworthy. “I thought he was looking after me,” she explains.

“But he was lining his own pockets. For five years I paid him faithfully, and he didn’t send any money to the tax office. My savings, my security, everything was gone.”

Officers launched an investigation. Cheryl was subsequently informed the conman had been apprehended by Interpol in relation to another fraud, but she never recovered a single penny.

“Even though I was the victim, I still had to repay it. It’s taken me so many years to recover. I had to sell my house,” she says.

Cheryl, whose acting career has seen her perform with the Royal Shakespeare Company as well as Little Britain and Doctor Who, admits it’s sometimes been hard to battle private setbacks in the public eye. “You’re expected to keep up appearances. Barbara Windsor told me: ‘keep putting a brave face on when you go out there, darling; give them a show, put on a smile.

“But at the same time the pressure is on. When you’re famous, people assume you’re loaded. I was paying restaurant bills I couldn’t afford just so no one knew I was struggling. But behind closed doors, I was totally skint.”

The actress has chosen to share her complete story following recent online mockery for flogging EastEnders scripts and performing in her local Chinese restaurant to make ends meet.

“Just because I am off the telly, doesn’t mean that I haven’t gone through some very hard times. I don’t let it get me down though.”

Following the fraud, she received a womb cancer diagnosis less than two years afterwards, which sparked a gruelling fight with her physical and mental wellbeing, including well-documented struggles with self-harm.

Cheryl also reveals being without a home alongside her toddler son back in 2002, years before stardom beckoned.

At that time, she found herself stuck in a damaging marriage to her first husband, Afghan refugee Jay Saddiqi, whom she married in May 2000.

However, their relationship proved turbulent and they separated.

Penniless, she endured eight months residing in a women’s refuge with her son Alex, who was then just a baby.

Existence in the refuge proved grim, yet Cheryl refused to allow it to break her spirit. “In 2018, many years later. I found myself sitting on a bench in Dartford on the exact same spot I used to sit in when I was homeless but this time because I was performing in a hit musical at the theatre just a few feet away.

“I thought, ‘Wow, I have come so far.’ Life has a funny way of going full circle.”

Her memoir tackles deeply harrowing experiences, including surviving sexual abuse as a youngster and her secret struggle with compulsive eating as an adult.

“I would eat in secret, when I was happy, as a treat, and when I was sad. It was my coping mechanism,” she confesses.

Yet there are also countless amusing tales from Cheryl’s celebrity-filled existence, including how her Albert Square character’s fixation with George Michael sparked a genuine friendship.

“You know that episode, where Heather and Shirely [Linda Henry] go to George Michael’s house? That was based on real life.

“Once when walking with Linda and Cliff Parisi in Highgate, they rang the bell and ran away, leaving me to chat to his housekeeper. It was so embarrassing but by the time I had got to the EastEnders set George Michael left me a voice mail. He started sending me gifts and we became mates. He was such a kind man.”

The memoir also gives Cheryl the chance to put rumours to rest regarding her marriage to her considerably younger Moroccan spouse.

“People will gossip. We’ve been through a lot, we come from different worlds. But I know the truth.”

Despite the challenges and triumphs, Cheryl maintains she has been “very blessed.

“I’ve met so many amazing people and had some incredible highs – my life has been more of a soap opera than EastEnders.”

As she gears up for her milestone birthday, she’s feeling hopeful about what lies ahead.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that money and fame don’t equal success. I’m looking forward to the next chapter. Bring it on!”.