Sally Dynevor fainted when she was told she had breast cancer – at the same time her soap character was fighting the disease.
Sally Dynevor fainted when she was told she had breast cancer – at the same time her soap character was fighting the disease
The ‘Coronation Street’ actress, 60, was given the news the same day she filmed a scene in which her Sally Metcalfe ‘Corrie’ alter ego revealed her cancer diagnosis to her husband, and said it led to her collapsing.
She told BBC Breakfast: “There was a particular day in 2009, I was reading the scripts, and I suddenly had a gap.
“And I thought. ‘I’m just going to go and see our nurse and see what she thinks’, because I felt something very, very tiny.
“When (the doctor) told me, ‘You have breast cancer’, I fainted.
“Then I said, ‘I think you’re getting me mixed up with my character.’”
The actress has recovered following chemotherapy and is now fronting a campaign by Prevent Breast Cancer to improve resources to train the next generation of cancer-screening staff.
She said: “When I got breast cancer, I was 46.And I thought that you didn’t get breast cancer at 46, it was for an older person.
“But yesterday I met a young girl who was 22 when she got diagnosed. So this is really important.”
She added about how it has changed her outlook on life: “You never think that’s going to happen to you. When somebody tells you that news, and it comes really out of the blue, it’s shocking.”
Sally, who is the mum of ‘Bridgerton’ actress Phoebe, 28, as well as Harriet and Samuel, also opened up about her cancer sparking health fears over her girls.
She said: “I have two daughters. I don’t want my daughters to go through what I’ve been through so what Prevent is doing is really important.”