Lindsey Coulson as Carol Jackson
Carol Jackson will discover she has a faulty BRCA gene in 'EastEnders'.
The Walford matriarch's ongoing breast cancer storyline will take a tragic turn when she discovers she has the BRCA2 gene, which means her daughters Bianca (Patsy Palmer) and Sonia (Natalie Cassidy) could be at risk of developing breast cancer too.
The storyline will run throughout the year and one of Carol's daughters will discover she has the BRCA2 gene, increasing her chances of a breast cancer diagnosis like her mum.
'EastEnders' producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: "She reacts very differently to her mother. We don't want to scaremonger, we want to show every little moment of a woman going through this and the way it affects her children, brothers, sisters and parents."
Lindsey Coulson - who plays Carol in the BBC One soap - says she wants to give viewers a "warts-and-all" portrayal of breast cancer and even thought she had developed cancer after immersing herself in the storyline.
She said: "I talked to a chemotherapy nurse and what you go through is not pretty. The viewers will see it warts-and-all. Chemo is a toxic poison and you are not going to look great. People need to see that Carol is losing her hair. I'm for as much authenticity as possible.
"I suggested Carol drinking mint tea and green tea because I'm quite fired up about the nutritional side. For a while, I was so immersed in it, I almost believed I had cancer myself. It is a big fear for all of us. I'm following an alkaline diet, having read about the links between sugar and cancerous tumours. I'm interested in whether someone like Carol would have that knowledge too."