Belinda Emmett fought her cancer until the end and was always more concerned about the well-being of the people around her than herself.

Her family, friends and husband Rove McManus have spoken publicly for the first time about the young actress and singer who lost her long battle with cancer late last year.

The people closest to her appeared on the ABC's Australian Story to pay tribute to Emmett, who died on November 11 at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital at the age of 32.

The segment included video diaries that Emmett herself recorded during her illness.

"I feel good, I feel happy," she says on the tape.

"I've made a real connection with a lot of things that I let fall by the wayside for many, many years.

"So ... anyway, I will endeavour to continue to lead my life in this way."

Belinda Emmett was initially diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998 at the age of 24.

She successfully underwent surgery to remove the malignant tumour, followed by six weeks of radiotherapy.

But after a period in remission, Belinda Emmett was diagnosed with secondary bone cancer in 2001, while playing nurse Jodi Horner on the Seven Network's hospital drama All Saints.

Belinda Emmett grew up on the NSW central coast and got her acting break when she appeared on popular long-running soap, Home and Away, playing Rebecca Fisher, between 1996 and 1999.

Her husband and top television presenter Rove McManus told Australian Story that Emmett's diagnosis strengthened, not weakened, her resolve.

"...it ignited a fire in her that was already there," McManus said.

"...it gave her such a drive to get through this for almost everybody else's sake than her own."

An excerpt from her video diary in October 2001 showed she was coming to grips with her illness.

"Okay, initial diagnosis four weeks ago, told dad, 12 months perhaps to live, 10 years if I was lucky," Belinda Emmett said in the diary.

"Averaged out to be about seven years, which is 34 years old."

"That's just far too young as far as I'm concerned - I'm sorry."

McManus said the cancer treatment and the resulting hair loss knocked Belinda Emmett over, but she never gave up.

"There are times where it can be a hard thing to get yourself back up and dust yourself off and get back out there and keep fighting," he said.

"But she would do it every single time."

Near the end, her father, Michael Emmett, knew his daughter had come to an acceptance of the inevitability of her death.

"About a week or so before she died she actually came to me and put her arms around me and said "dad, I don't think I'm going to grow old," Michael Emmett said.

At the time of her death she was surrounded by the people she loved and just before she slipped away, her last words were that of concern over her sister, Lesley Arthur.

"We'd sleep on the floors and in chairs wherever we could, but there was always someone there holding her hand," Belinda Emmett's father Michael said.

"Her absolute last words were - she woke up and Lesley was holding her hand and having a bit of a quiet weep.

"And Belinda looked up at her and said 'are you alright'?

"That was the last thing she ever said.

"I think those final words were indicative of what Belinda felt - she loved people.

"She was always more concerned for them than she was for herself."