Former EastEnders and Are You Being Served? actress Wendy Richard died earlier today, it has been announced. Richard, who played Pauline Fowler in EastEnders from 1985 to 2006 had been diagnosed with cancer last October, and later tests revealed it to be an aggressive, terminal form.

Her agent Kevin Francis said she passed away in the Harley Street Clinic in London with her long-term partner John Burns, whom she married last year, by her side.

Related: Wendy Richard diagnosed with cancer

Speaking to the Sunday Express last year, Richard said: “…I have a cancerous growth on my right kidney and the cancer has spread to my bones. It’s more aggressive this time, unfortunately, and has spread to the top of my spine and left ribs.”

She received the MBE for services to television in 2000 and in 2007 was awarded a British Soap Award for Lifetime Achievement for her role in EastEnders, which she left in 2006 citing as the reason for her departure that she didn’t believe Pauline would have remarried and objected to the producers insisting on the storyline.

I bumped into Wendy Richard in a London pub just off Baker Street shortly after she left EastEnders, and made rather a fool of myself blurting out a star-struck question to her while standing at the bar without even introducing myself. But like the consummate professional she was, she took my bluff manner in good part and politely kept up the conversation for a few minutes before graciously withdrawing to enjoy her drink in peace (i.e. escape from the rude Northerner). So thanks, Wendy, for that one private memory to keep alongside the many public ones.