Coronation Street legend shared how her on-screen storyline prompted her to get checked for cancer
Coronation Street’s Sally Dynevor appeared on Loose Women(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Coronation Street’s Sally Dynevor has candidly discussed her harrowing battle with cancer, confessing it “changed my life completely”.
The soap icon, who recently marked four decades on the famous cobbles, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009. Following a lumpectomy and six months of chemotherapy, she thankfully made a full recovery.
At the time of her diagnosis, Sally’s on-screen persona, Sally Metcalfe, was also grappling with a breast cancer diagnosis, mirroring her real-life ordeal.
During Wednesday’s (February 11) episode of Loose Women, Sally joined panellists Christine Lampard, Janet Street Porter and Coleen Nolan. Conversation inevitably turned to her health struggle after Corrie co-star Beverley Callard recently disclosed her own breast cancer diagnosis.
Sally confessed that her diagnosis “completely changed her life.”, reports the Daily Star.
She reminisced: “My character had breast cancer and I had to tell Carla Connor (played by Alison King) that Sally had breast cancer. That was a very, very difficult scene because I knew I was leaving at that point.”
The actress revealed: “I wanted to carry on working. I didn’t want to stop, but the moment that I was told I needed chemo that’s the moment that I realised that actually this is serious.
“But hopefully for Bev, she’s caught this early so she will be hopefully back at work and carrying on doing what she’s doing.
“It’s very hard for women because if you’re a working mum and the breadwinner, then you want to carry on. You need to be working.”
In an emotional revelation, Sally confessed that her character’s storyline proved instrumental in prompting her to seek medical examination.
She said: “I’ve still not come to terms that it happened and maybe if I hadn’t had the storyline, maybe I wouldn’t have checked because I was only 46.”
She went on: “I thought it was, you know, much older women but it’s not. I mean thank goodness there’s much more information out there now than there was 15 years ago when I got it. But now we’re talking about it, which is very important.”
She recalled: “I remember my first day back on the street after having eight months off or six months off and walking down the cobbles and going.
“I am so grateful for this because once you have something taken away from you. You think that’s it, and then to get it back is just, wow, I mean, you don’t take it for granted.”
Coronation Street airs Monday to Friday at 8:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX and Loose Women airs weekdays from 12:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX
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