Moira Dingle (Natalie J Robb)’s brain tumour has been causing her to behave in an erratic and impulsive way in Emmerdale.

Only on Monday (September 30) she decided to buy a small flock of sheep for her son Isaac (Bobby Dunsmuir), because he was missing his pet lamb Minty who died earlier this year.

Mackenzie Boyd (Lawrence Robb) wasn’t a fan of this plan – after all, they already had sheep and Isaac is only seven years old. But Moira shrugged off his concerns and bought the animals anyway.

In Tuesday’s (October 1) episode there was bad news. The sheep had escaped after someone left the gate to their field open. Moira had been up there to check that the animals were OK after moving to the farm, so Mack’s conclusion was that she must have forgotten to close the gate.

Moira denied that this could be true. She’s been a farmer for a long time, and closing gates was instinctive to her. This wasn’t the main issue, though. It was that, since Moira’s diagnosis, she’s had to come to terms with her family worrying that she can’t cope with the everyday things that she used to take for granted.

Matty Barton (Ash Palmisciano) has moved in to keep an eye on her while Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) is away visiting Zak Dingle (Steve Halliwell), and he and Mack try to make sure Moira is never left on her own. She feels diminished and like her independence has been taken away. 

You’d think the last person she’d want to see in this situation would be her former arch enemy Ruby Fox-Miligan (Beth Cordingly), but since being almost killed by Moira Ruby has apparently decided that she wants to be friends with her and she turned up and started busying herself making lunch.  

There was a moment of vulnerability when Ruby mentioned her mum, who died recently. She said she’d got the cremation date, but then she pulled herself together and asked Moira for more information about her brain tumour. ‘I live for Dingle ailments!’ she insisted.

Mack returned, having rounded the sheep up and put them back in their field. Ruby took her leave, telling Mack to ‘be kind’ in the way he dealt with Moira.  

Despite this he still insisted that Moira must have let the sheep out and he told her she really needed to ‘realise her limitations.’ That’s the last thing she wants to do, but she agreed that from now on she’ll ‘stay inside and be good.’  

Then Isaac got back from school, and he had a guilty conscience. He just might have left the gate open as he rushed off to school, he admitted. Moira reassured him that the sheep were safe and he wasn’t in trouble. 

Mack was mortified and apologised to his sister for jumping to the conclusion that she was at fault – and Moira permitted herself a little smile of victory and relief.