Palmer helped brother to beat heroin

The brother of Patsy Palmer has publicly thanked the EastEnders star for helping him to beat a heroin addiction.

Patsy's older brother Albert Harris, now 41, became hooked on the drug when he was just 15. He later turned to crime to feed his addiction and was jailed more than ten times.

In 1999, Palmer spent £2,500 to put Albert in the Promises rehab clinic in Kent after hearing that he was spending £1,000 a day on crack cocaine and heroin. He checked out of the treatment facility just one week later.

In 2002, she gave up a further £10,000 in a second attempt to help her brother. He checked into a specialist unit in Westonsuper-Mare, Somerset, where he made considerable progress, though he has since relapsed on a number of different occasions.

"Without her help I could be dead now," Albert told the Sunday Mirror. "She paid for me to go to rehab twice when I was at my worst, and she never gave up on me, even though I have relapsed many times. She has always been there for me. I hate feeling that I've let her down.

"Whenever she would give me that disapproving look I'd know it was time to sort myself out and get clean. Sometimes she shouted at me like she does to Ricky on EastEnders, because she wanted to help me."

"About 15 months ago I went through my last withdrawal," he continued. "I turned round and asked for help and she was there. She let me move in with her for a few weeks on condition I stayed clean. I've been clean since and I couldn't have done it without her."

Palmer returned to her role as Walford's Bianca Jackson earlier this year.