Denise gets massive news in EastEnders on an already life-changing day

Denise Fox (Diane Parish) has battled blood cancer with the utmost courage in EastEnders, despite a number of obstacles being consistently thrown at her.

Just as she was diagnosed, her grandson Jordan (Jahsaiah Williams) was knocked down by Ian Beale’s (Adam Woodyatt) car, while Gray Atkins (Toby-Alexander Smith) reared his evil head, having formulated a plot to kidnap Jordan.

After her initial round of chemo, she was hit with a further blow when she learned her ward mate had passed away and later, that the chemo had failed to perform as doctors expected and her immediate family turned out not be matches for a stem cell transplant.

With hopes high, Denise admitted herself to hospital for another round of chemotherapy, but as before, it failed to do the job, with the family forced to accept that a stem cell transplant is the only thing left that can save Denise.

Taking to an ancestry site, Denise’s sister, Kim Fox (Tameka Empson) and husband, Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) made an enormous discovery, Denise, in fact, has a half brother, Darnell Larson (Christopher Colquhoun).

What seemed like the key to Denise’s survival proved difficult to lock down, though.

Denise was placed in a medically-induced coma due to her chest infection developing into sepsis.

Jack pled with Darnell to put himself forward to test if he was a stem cell match, but a deeply anxious Darnell resisted.

Clearly terrified, he refused point blank to undergo the test, but later, with the urging of his daughter Grace (Krysstina Frempong), he made his way to the hospital to meet Denise.

He continued to struggle with simply being in a medical environment, though, explaining that the death of his wife utterly broke him and left him absolutely terrified of hospitals, while Denise sought to relieve the pressure.

Eventually, he agreed to battle his demons and take the swab to find out if he’s a match and could potentially save his newly-discovered sister’s life.

Next week sees the wedding of Kim and Howie Danes (Delroy Atkinson), an event tinged with sadness due to Denise being unable to leave hospital, attending only via a video link.

Acutely aware that Kim is absolutely devastated by the absence of her beloved sister, sweetheart Howie decides to make a last-minute change to proceedings.

He whisks his fiancée and their family off to the hospital, where they exchange vows in Denise’s hospital room.

As the love in the room swells to capacity, Denise receives further good news: at long last, a provisional stem cell match has been found, and could see her begin to recover from the vile illness that’s been plaguing her.

With Kim and Howie wed and and the potential of treatment for Denise’s condition on the horizon, are things finally about to take a turn for the Fox-Trueman clan?