Tracey Emin announces ‘all clear’ cancer scan 

In An interview with BBC Newsnight, the 57-year-old said she had reached a “big, big milestone” last week when her three-monthly scans were “all clear”.

Emin was diagnosed with a “really rapid, really aggressive” bladder cancer last year.

“I’m not painting because I’m using my willpower to stay alive. That’s what I’m doing,” she told the programme.

But she said that over the coming years she hoped to put her energy back into painting, as well as “being happy, smiling more, just enjoying life”.

“I never realised how much I wanted to live until I thought I was going to die,” she said.

Emin, has undergone extensive surgery saying she had her bladder removed, a full hysterectomy, her urethra removed, her lymph nodes removed, “half of my vagina removed”, and part of her intestine removed to stop the spread of the cancer.