PRESENTER Kaye Adams has led the tributes to her television colleague Lynda Bellingham, who died in her husband's arms only two months after deciding to end her cancer treatment.
Ms Adams, who worked with Ms Bellingham on ITV show Loose Women, said the actress was "an incredibly courageous person".
Ms Bellingham 66, best known for her long-running role as a mother in the Oxo TV adverts, had been diagnosed last July with colon cancer, which later spread to her lungs and liver.
The actress, whose career highlights included long-running TV series All Creatures Great And Small, said last month she had decided on August 13 to end her treatment to limit the amount of suffering her family would witness. She died peacefully in hospital.
Husband Michael Pattemore said: "I just want her to be remembered as an actress more than anything - not as a celebrity or one of the Loose Women. She started her career as an actress and never thought of herself as a celebrity. She's always been an actress."
He added: "I can tell you now the words on her gravestone will be, 'The curtain went up on May 31, 1948, and the final curtain went down on October 19, 2014'."
Ms Bellingham's career included the title role in sitcom Faith In The Future and regular stage roles. She also took part in Strictly Come Dancing in 2009.
The star, whose sister Barbara died from lung cancer, had filmed a special farewell episode of Loose Women, which will air tomorrow, in which she received a standing ovation.
Ms Adams said: "She just had such an energy and a dynamism and you were just always pleased to see her and always felt she was pleased to see you, which is a fabulous thing to be able to do.
"She always left you feeling better about life."
She added: "I think a lot of people will be thinking of her so fondly this morning and thinking 'God, Lynda, you are incredible'."
Ms Bellingham, who was awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours list for her charity work, was asked recently how she would like to be remembered and said she wanted to be thought of as an honest person.
Ms Adams said: "That's one of the many ways she will be remembered - honest, generous, kind, courageous, intelligent, thoughtful, all of those things."
Other stars who paid tribute to the actress were Christopher Timothy, Simon Pegg and Nadia Sawalha.
Timothy, Bellingham's co-star in All Creatures Great And Small, said: "She was funny, she was loyal, she was talented, that's without doubt. She was a great mum, she was a real friend and on-set she was 'one of the boys' really. "
Pegg, who starred with her in Faith In The Future, said she was his "first TV mother figure and a treasured friend," while Ms Sawalha, Loose Women co-presenter, said: "She would come into a room and light the place up."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article