Lorraine Chase is "lucky to be alive" after almost choking to death.
The \'Emmerdale\' actress - who played Steph Stokes on the ITV soap from 2002 to 2006, before making a one-off return in 2013 - was saved by a barmaid after getting a salmon on rye snack caught in her throat when she popped in for a friend\'s 50th birthday party at a local pub.
She told The Sun Online: "I wasn\'t even drinking as I was getting up in the early hours of the morning to drive to see friends in Suffolk.
"I was eating a little piece of smoked salmon on rye bread, which was quite dry, and it just went down the wrong way and became stuck in my windpipe.
"I\'ve never been so frightened in all my life. I\'m lucky to be alive. I was coughing and choking. I couldn\'t breathe.\'
The 68-year-old star - who found the incident "quite funny" with the benefit of hindsight - recalled a young barmaid saving the day after her friends had no idea what to do.
She said: "But by that stage the barmaid, who was only a young girl herself, came from behind the bar and took hold of me in the Heimlich manoeuvre, but it didn\'t work.
"So she sat me down, put my head between her legs and whacked me hard on the back a good few times between the shoulders and eventually dislodged the piece of toast.
"I was told not to eat anything else but I said, \'Of course I am, I\'m absolutely bloody starving!\' "
