WHAT EVER happened to Nicola Park? The gallus wee actress has been through the worst of times over the last five years.

First, the Dumbarton-born actress suffered the potentially-fatal pregnancy complication pre-eclampsia, while carrying son Jude.

Then, in 2004, one of Nicola's gallstones infected her pancreas - "a one in a million" chance" - that began to shut down all her major organs.

She was rushed back to the high-dependency unit at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley and fell into a coma. When she woke seven weeks later Nicola learned she had contracted diabetes.

She recovered and went back to work - but was involved in a serious car crash in Great Western Road, suffering a broken nose, a broken wrist and severe whiplash.

However, the lady who has made a career out of playing strong, gallus women battled her way back to the professional stage at the Pavilion two years ago.

It looked as if she had beaten the odds and all was well. Then she went missing.

Since that time the 4ft 11in performer with the massive personality - she once starred as one of the Nesbitt family as Bridie - has dropped off the face off the earth.

"I have just been to Benidorm on holiday and there were lots of people stopping me and saying, Did you no' used to be at the Pavilion?'", she says, smiling.

However, the 36-year-old explains there were serious reasons why she dropped the curtain on her own career.

"I couldn't handle acting any more," she says. "I thought I would take a break from theatre - and it turned out to be a couple of years."

Nicola needed to be at home with Jude, now almost five.

She continues: "Acting was difficult for a single mum. Living in Dumbarton made things difficult.

"My mother Theresa and sister Laura have been great in looking after him, but I would be getting up and off to work and when I came home he would be in his bed. I couldn't cope with that. I wanted to be a mum for a while.

"Sometimes you get to a stage where you need to be in the house and cook a meal, to have a bit of normality, and watch EastEnders.

"If you are working it takes forever to unwind after a show, and then you have to be up first thing. I'd had enough. I needed to be at home with my wee boy."

But Nicola's walking away from showbiz was compounded by the fact her former partner Laurie worked at the Pavilion. They split and have not kept in touch.

"I haven't seen him since I left the Pavilion, but there are no bitter feelings. He's given me a wonderful son."

However, the car crash took a toll Nicola had not anticipated. It left her frightened of driving alone. After the accident she began to have panic attacks and she had to have counselling.

"I can't drive distances on my own," she says. "I need my mum or someone else in the car. I'm too nervous.

"I was waking up during the night screaming, thinking I was about to die. But that is getting sorted."

As well as battling Post Traumatic Stress, there were the fluctuations in her energy levels. Some days, when her insulin levels were "all over the place" she had to drag herself out of bed.

However, Nicola is made of strong stuff: she has beaten the depression, her diabetes is now controlled, and she has rebuilt her life.

"When I began to feel better I figured I would start my own theatre school in Dumbarton. It's called the Nicola Park Musical Theatre Academy.

"I have been acting, singing, dancing, and performing all my life and wanted to put something back.

"I am one of the few people who run these performance classes who is a working actress. I do not just teach singing, dancing and acting, it is about stagecraft, putting on a show.

"So I started these classes and they have been really successful. What it also gives me is some stability, it's wonderful."

What is also wonderful, Nicola reveals, is she is now married.

"I got married last August. Stephen is a greenkeeper at Gleddoch House, and I have known him all my life.

"We grew up in Dumbarton and he was a pal of my wee brother Jim.

"One day Stephen realised I was single and asked me out on a date. After all these years he is now the love of my life."

She adds: "He proposed at a James Blunt concert, when You're Beautiful was playing.

"On the way to the concert I was complaining I did not have a ring for that finger and Stephen seemed really touchy, awkward because he thought I knew he was going to propose, and I was making hints.

"But that couldn't have been further from the truth. When he asked me I burst into tears."

Having rebuilt her life, Nicola is set to make her comeback on the professional stage.

"Pavilion manager Iain Gordon asked me to come back and I jumped at the chance. I am so delighted to be acting again."

From next month Nicola will star in Battle Of The Bulge, the comedy tale of a group of women who attend Strathclyde Slimmers, each with their own reason for wanting to lose weight.

"The first time around when I appeared in the show I was pregnant with Jude," she says. "I really did have a bulge, but a fantastic one.

"Jude has seen me teaching the kids and now he can get the chance to see me on the big stage.

"And all the kids from my class are coming to see me."

The excitement abates, and then she reflects: "I have had a few problems to contend with, but what have I really got? I've got a great wee boy and a man who really loves me.

"My business has taken off and I'm going back to the Pavilion where people will come to see me. Life is really, really great." Battle Of The Bulge, which also stars Stephen Purdon, Gwyneth Guthrie and Lesley Fitz-Simons, runs at the Pavilion from August 6-16.