EASTENDERS FANS MOURN

Wendy Richard, the actress widely known for her roles as both Miss Brahms in Are You Being Served? (1972 to 1985) and 21 years of playing the redoubtable, sad-faced matriarch Pauline Fowler, from the first episode of EastEnders in 1985 until her character's departure in 2006. Ms. Richard endured two battles with breast cancer in the mid 1990s and then in 2002. Her cancer went into remission after years of treatment, and she was given a clean bill of health in 2005 - only to be told last year that the disease had returned, in an aggressive form.