Linda's career fears

Birds Of A Feather star Linda Robson has told how she feared a crippling illness would end her career.

The actress collapsed with an acute attack of pancreatitis as she prepared to film a new TV series earlier this year.

She was rushed to hospital and feared she would never work again.

But Robson, 45, struggled back to health and is about to return to the screen with a guest role in police drama The Bill.

Robson collapsed six months ago, soon after she took a starring role in new ITV1 sitcom Odd Socks.

"I'd just started filming it and I got rushed into hospital with pancreatitis. They had to recast it and Lynda Bellingham took over my part. She was so lovely and sent me flowers, but at the time I can't tell you how heartbroken I was," she told TV Times.

"I thought, 'That's the end of my career. I'm never going to work again'. But it just wasn't meant to be for me. And there are other things that have come along."

Robson is scheduled to have an operation on her pancreas which she hopes will cure her of the disease.

In The Bill she will play Michelle, a cousin of PC Polly Page, who believes she is being stalked.