Watch Coronation Street Anne Kirkbride Dies

Coronation Street actress Anne Kirkbride one of the nation's best-loved and longest-serving soap stars - died yesterday at the age of 60.The actress, who played Deirdre Barlow in the show for 43 years, is believed to have suffered breast cancer which spread to her brain.Last night, thousands of fans flocked to social media to mourn her loss. One moving post read: 'Hard to imagine Coronation Street without Anne Kirkbride.'Fellow actors lined up to pay tribute to the 'loving and vibrant' actress, who appeared in 1,439 episodes of the soap.It was revealed in September that Miss Kirkbride was to take an extended break from the soap. The star was expected to be absent for three months and was due to make a return this month.Yet in recent days there was speculation that she was considering quitting the role that had made her famous.Miss Kirkbride, who was born in Oldham, fought a battle with cancer in 1993, when she was forced to temporarily leave the soap after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. She returned just a year later.In 2001 she said: 'I just wanted to die because you just don't want to go on living feeling like that. But you're frightened that if you die you might still feel like that on the other side. There's no escape.'A source told The Sun last night that Miss Kirkbride had suffered the disease again developing breast cancer which later spread t.