Emmerdale actress Coral Atkins dead aged 80 after losing battle with cancer

EMMERDALE actress Coral Atkins has died.

The actress - who played Ruth Jameson in the ITV soap in 1993 - passed away aged 80 following a battle with cancer.

"She was a remarkably powerful character," her son Harry said as he confirmed her passing to Newbury Today.

"She was completely fearless as she faced the end of her days, telling me, 'There's no tragedy in an 80-year-old woman dying'."

As well as featuring in Emmerdale, the actress became a television regular appearing in a number of popular shows.

Among them she starred in Dixon of Dock Green, The Avengers and Coronation Street.

She also starred in The Likely Lads, The Sweeney, Survivors, Softly, Softy, Z-Cars and Callan.

However her most famous role was of Sheila Ashton in 1970s family series A Family At War which ran for 52 episodes on ITV.

After leaving the ITV soap in 1993, the star turned her attention to charity work, caring for children in the care system.

According to the newspaper she cared for more than 37 children in her career as a carer but in 1997 she was left severely injured in a car accident and was forced to give up running the home.

"It never stopped being a battle from start to finish," Harry added of his mother's charity work.

"When she decided to set up the home she had no university education and no experience in child care.

"She went on a child psychology course in Manchester and then moved back to where she grew up to set up the home."

Coral was married to actor Jeremy Young before the pair divorced.

She went on to become involved with Harry's father, film director Peter Whitehead, in a relationship that lasted six years.

The actress was born in London's Richmond upon Thames before the family moved to Bucklebury when she was young.

She was evacuated, alongside her sister, during World War Two.

In 1990 Coral published her memoirs, titled Seeing Red, which she then adapted into an eight episode radio series for BBC Radio Four.

A decade later in 2000, ITV bought the rights to the book and dramatised it into a show starring Sarah Lancashire as Atkins.

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