Denise devastated by heartbreaking death in EastEnders- and another shock follows

This article contains spoilers from tonight’s episode of EastEnders, which is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.

Just when Denise Fox (Diane Parish) thought her luck couldn’t get any worse.

The Walford icon’s battle against acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) has been breaking hearts up and down the nation. Since her diagnosis, she found the strength to share her ordeal with her family, the indominitable Fox-Hubbards – who sadly, have troubles of their own.

The clan have been devastated ever since Denise’s grandson Jordan Fox (Izaiah Hagan-Brown) ran out in front of a car – a car that just so happened to be driven by ‘Enders legend Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt).

With Jordan facing potentially life-changing injuries, his mum Chelsea Fox (Zaraah Abrahams) has been left struggling to cope. So much so, that she’s been forced to accept the assistance of Sheila Atkins (Sheila Ruskin), the grandmother of her horrifically abusive serial-killing baby daddy Gray Atkins (Toby-Alexander Smith) – something that she’s very keen to keep from Denise.

In yesterday’s episode, Denise was discharged from hospital after being regretfully informed by her doctor that her cancer was not currently responding to treatment. Rather that dampen her family’s celebrations and ruin her own homecoming, Denise chose to conceal her losing battle with cancer from her daughters Chelsea and Libby Fox (Belinda Owusu),partner Jack Branning (Scott Maslen), half sister Kim Fox (Tameka Empson) and bestie Yolande Trueman (Angela Wynter).

As it turns out, one of the things getting Denise through has been her friendship with fellow cancer patient Teyana (Denise Pitter). She befriended Teyana during their time on the ward, and the two women became as thick as thieves, bonded by their battle against the big C.

‘Morning friend. How are we? You got that dog-tired can’t sleep feeling? Me too. I’m missing you. It’s funny, that. It’s not like we could hang out is it? But still. Knowing that you were two doors down made me feel like we were cheers-ing over the devil juice!’

This heartfelt moment ends when Jack enters, concerned to see how Denise is doing. We see her the heartbreaking reality of living with cancer as Jack reveals he slept on the sofa to minimise infection risk, while the treatment has affected Denise’s senses, making her extremely sensitive to the new washing powder Libby has been using.

Meanwhile, Chelsea admits to Libby that she is getting cold feet about granting Gray’s grandmother access to Jordan and thinks Jack is right – maybe they should tell Denise the truth. But Libby insists that the truth would only stress Denise out.

Then the woman herself enters. Despite herself, it bothers Denise to see Libby and everyone else stepping up in her absence and making sure the kids get to school on time. ‘And there was me thinking everyone was going to fall apart without me.’ Denise chuckles, with a tinge of regret in her voice.

Similarly, it also bothers Denise to learn that Kim has moved the date to earlier in the year – presumably in case she doesn’t live long enough to make the original date.

Later, Denise finds comfort in laughing at one of Teyana’s to one of Teyana’s funny voice-notes when she has a surprising meeting with Ravi Gulati’s (Aaron Thiara), who is horrified to learn she has cancer.

After his own mental health struggles recently, Ravi has a touching heart-to-heart with Denise, who tries to articulate how she feels now. ‘Feels like I’ve been put back in my life, and it’s almost the same but everything thing’s a little bit off. Feels like that film, the Truman show. The worst part is I thought going away, when I came back, everything would have fallen apart, but everyone’s been tickety-boo without me.’ Ravi can relate.

Their meeting is cut short when Jack arrives, worried about what she’s doing out and insisting on driving her to hospital later. Frustrated, Denise asserts she does not need anyone holding her hand.

So Denise heads to hospital with some balm for Teyana, where she learns some heartbreaking news from the hospital porter: Teyana woke up with ahigh temperature. She developed an infection, and didn’t survive the night. Going straight into denial, Denise simply cannot comprehend that the woman who sent her voice notes just mere hours ago has gone forever.

When she returns to the Square, Denise flatly confronts Kim for changing the wedding date in case she dies soon and walks away resigned, with a desperate Libby in pursuit.

Back in the house, Libby tries to tend to Denise but she claims she’s fine and heads upstairs alone.

Alone in her room, Denise listens to the final voice-note from Teyana, heartbreaking reminder of her own possible future. ‘Truth is…I’m feeling rough Dee. This round is hell. It’s worse than hell. We put on a face , don’t we? We try to be strong. Sometimes… sometimes I just want to give up.’

As Denise struggles to compose herself, she looks out from her window across the square… where she sees Chelsea and Jordan talking to Sheila. Suspicious, she calls up Libby and demands to know who that is. Sheepish Libby lets slip that it’s his great-gran.

It doesn’t take long for a fuming Denise to put two and two together. ‘What?! You mean Gray’s Gran?!”

Duv duv duv…