Lynda Bellingham, OBE (born Meredith Lee Hughes; 31 May 1948 – 19 October 2014) was a Canadian-born English actress, broadcaster and author, who starred in the long-running series of "Oxo Family" British TV adverts between 1983 and 1999, the drama series All Creatures Great and Small, the science-fiction series Doctor Who and in the comedy series Second Thoughts and Faith in the Future. She was a panellist on the ITV lunchtime chat show Loose Women between 2007 and 2011.

Biography

Bellingham was married three times, first in 1975 to film and theatre producer Greg Smith. Her second marriage (1981–96) was to Nunzio Peluso, with whom she had two sons, Michael and Robbie.

On 31 May 2008, Bellingham married her boyfriend, Spain-based mortgage broker Michael Pattemore (known on Loose Women as "Mr Spain"), at St Stephen Walbrook on her 60th birthday.

Bellingham was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for voluntary service to charitable giving.


Illness and death
On 16 July 2013, it was announced that Bellingham had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer. She released a statement saying she was "not going to die."

In September 2014, Bellingham confirmed that her cancer had metastasized to her lungs and liver and that she had "months to live". She announced that she had made the choice in August 2014 to stop her chemotherapy in November, so that she could have "one last Christmas" with her family and die in January 2015. However, Bellingham died in a London hospital on 19 October 2014 with her husband Michael and friend Nickolas Grace by her side.

A few weeks before her death, Bellingham's official website was taken down, with the message: "We're very sorry, at the request of Lynda and Michael we have temporarily taken the website offline."

On 3 November 2014, her funeral took place at St Bartholomew's Church in Crewkerne, attended by family and friends. Afterwards, Bellingham was buried in the adjoining churchyard.