Coronation Street star Sally Dynevor has revealed she fainted when she was told she had breast cancer at the time her on-screen character was battling the disease.
The soap star, 60, said she thought her doctor was confusing her with her character when she was told she had cancer on the same day she filmed the scene where she shared her diagnosis with her on-screen husband.
Dynevor, who has played Sally Metcalfe in the ITV show since 1986, recalled how she only checked herself for a lump after reading the scripts for the soap.
She told BBC Breakfast: “There was a particular day in 2009, I was reading the scripts, and I suddenly had a gap.
Coronation Street actor Sally Dynevor is backing a campaign to train the next generation of specialists in mammogram screening.
She spoke to #BBCBreakfast alongside Lester Barr from Prevent Breast Cancer after her experience on and off screen https://t.co/yWX9eWMFgM pic.twitter.com/OYRL5L65dr
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) October 19, 2023
“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.”
She added: “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’.”
Dynevor is now fronting a campaign by Prevent Breast Cancer to improve resources to train the next generation of medical staff to work in breast cancer screening.
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 continued: “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 really shocking.”
Dynevor, who is mother to Bridgerton and Fair Play star Phoebe Dynevor, as well as daughter Harriet and son Samuel, 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.”