There's drama in EastEnders next week when the Slaters are forced to report someone missing to the police...
Jean Slater's cancer secret is discovered by her family in next week's EastEnders, but when the pressure becomes too much, she suddenly does a disappearing act.
After a conversation with Sonia Fowler gives her food for thought, Jean goes home and gets rid of all the unhealthy food in the house in an attempt to cope with her cancer.
But daughter Stacey sees her mum's meltdown and worries that there's something seriously wrong, leading to her booking a doctors appointment on her mum's behalf.
Jean panics when Stacey insists on going with her to the appointment, but manages to get her to stay in the waiting room while she goes to see the GP.
However, what Stacey doesn't realise is that her mum has escaped form the doctor before she has a chance to talk to her.
Back at home Stacey is concerned about her mum and tells Kat she is going to have to step up and help more with Cherry because Jean is clearly not coping.
But later when Kat is searching for something of Cherry's in Jean's bedroom, she's stunned when she comes across Jean's letter from the hospital asking her along to an appointment.
Jean catches Kat red-handed and demands that she keeps her cancer secret from Stacey, but this is a secret too huge to keep to herself and Kat drops the bombshell on Stacey that her mum has got cancer.
Stacey dashes to the Vic where Jean is cleaning and insists that her mum goes along to her appointment immediately, but it all becomes too much for Jean, especially when Shirley also overhears the commotion and demands to know why Jean didn't tell her during their heart-to-heart a few weeks back.
With the pressure of everyone knowing her devastating news getting too much, Jean makes the shock decision to leave, and after heading home to collect her things, she sneaks off to the tube station without anyone seeing.
The Slaters panic when Jean is nowhere to be found, and the following day they report her missing to the police. But where has she gone? And will she be okay?
EastEnders airs Monday and Friday at 8pm and Tuesday and Thursday at 7.30pm on BBC One.
Picture credits: BBC and BBC / Kieron McCarron
