Pamela Anderson is waging a battle for her life as the disease she caught from her ex-husband Tommy Lee tightens its grip.

The 40-year-old is terrified she won't live to see her sons Brandon, 11, and Dylan, nine, grow up, after a decline in her health has left her vulnerable.

Her critics were quick to scold her for marrying Rick Salomon, but Pamela's friends say he's more of a carer than a husband.

'Pamela is a contradiction,' a pal says. 'She's not shy, but she's private - she'd hate anyone to know how bad her health is.

'She couldn't face the thought of telling the world that Rick was moving in to help look after her.

'It would have turned her life into a circus, and been terrifying for her kids to hear reports their mum was so close to death.'

Until now, her eagerness to keep the extent of her hepatitis C under wraps has meant she's adopted a light workload and explained it by saying she was focusing on her personal life.
Now she's had to come to terms with never working again and must focus on her health.

She stopped working as an assistant to Las Vegas magician Hans Klok on December 8 and accepts she's just too ill to keep playing the global sex symbol.

Pamela, who is a shadow of the red swimsuit-clad icon she'll be remembered as, denies she and Rick live wild lives, as Pam can't cope with the exertion.

While her immediate future is in Malibu, when her sons are older Pamela plans to move to her native Canada, where the slower pace will help her cope.

'Five more years and I'll go back to Canada,' she says. 'I've got some land. It'll be time.'

Considering how her life has been damaged by her illness, the most remarkable thing is Pam's attitude toward Tommy, who's entirely to blame for her health problems. He never told her he had the hepatitis C virus and the pair shared a needle to have 'wedding rings' tattooed on their fingers.

Somehow Pamela has come to terms with his deception and its hideous consequences, and says she 'wishes him well'.

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