Poor Sally, I wish her all the best. This explains Sally Webster's on-screen absence - she's supposedly staying with her sister to recuperate.
Printable View
Poor Sally, I wish her all the best. This explains Sally Webster's on-screen absence - she's supposedly staying with her sister to recuperate.
THe poor love, that woulad have made things so much harder and the fact she got through it shows how strong she is. I hope that she is better soon, and that the treatment has gone well.
BRAVE Corrie star Sally Whittaker told last night how she beat breast cancer thanks to the soap.
She started researching the disease because her character Sally Webster was being stricken by it - and found a lump in her breast.
Sally, 47 today, said: "As a result of the early diagnosis my treatment has been successful and I am able to return to work next month. This storyline could very well have saved my life."
The mum-of-three found the lump in late October and began a six-month course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Sally kept her condition a secret from cast members until blurting it out to Michael Le Vell, who plays screen husband Kevin. She filmed a block of scenes so she could appear on screen for a while.
Then she took a break as the treatment took effect, with viewers being told Sally Webster had gone to her sister's home to recuperate.
Beautiful
Sally, who has been in Coronation Street since 1986, is working with The Genesis Appeal charity and The Christie Hospital in Manchester to raise awareness of breast cancer research. She starts filming again in June with her return due to air in July.
She will now be known by her married name of Sally Dynevor, explaining: "It feels right after everything we have been through." She and scriptwriter husband Tim have a son Sam, 13, and daughters Hattie, seven, and Phoebe, 15.
In a separate interview with Hello! magazine, Sally said: "I would hate to be sat on a fluffy cloud looking down on them. I had to be there to see them grow up.
"Every time the children say, 'Oh Mum, why haven't we got any chocolate biscuits?' it snaps me back into mum mode and takes my mind off it, which is brilliant."
Sally - who had her blonde locks shorn before they could fall out in clumps - added: "Other times, when I've been feeling at my absolute worse, Hattie has said, 'Oh Mummy, you are so beautiful.'
"Without them knowing, they have got me through it. It's made me appreciate life more and I feel humbled. Everybody I love, I love a million times more."
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...#ixzz0mr7PDaCK
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/...53_308x185.jpg
Poor Sally, so glad she is going to be ok. She still looks beautiful.
Sally Whittaker has confirmed reports that she is battling breast cancer.
In a post on the Coronation Street website, the actress explained that she found a lump in her breast while preparing for a storyline in which her character Sally Webster has the disease.
"If I had not been researching this storyline I may not have discovered the lump in my breast and had it looked at so quickly," she said.
"As a result of the early diagnosis, my treatment has been successful and I am able to return to work next month. This storyline could very well have saved my life."
Whittaker filmed the Christmas Day scenes in which Sally tells Kevin (Michael LeVell) that she has cancer while she was waiting for her own test results. She continued working when she started treatment, but the storyline was altered so that she could recover from six months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
The actress has now revealed that she plans to organise fundraising campaigns for The Genesis Appeal and The Christie Hospital in Manchester and added: "I also want women to know that the sooner you start treating this disease the better."
She thanked her friends, family and colleagues and continued: "The media should also be praised for allowing me to go through my treatment and recovery in private and out of the press spotlight."
Whittaker went on: "I am now looking forward to getting back to Coronation Street and working alongside Genesis and The Christie."
Coronation Street star Sally Whittaker has said that she fainted when she received her breast cancer diagnosis.
The actress had expected to get the all-clear when she attended a hospital appointment for biopsy test results with husband Tim.
Speaking to Hello magazine, Whittaker explained: "I was so confident that Tim and I skipped in discussing where we would go for a drink afterwards.
"My consultant Lester Barr is such a gentle man that I couldn't read on his face what the result was."
She continued: "Lester sat me down and then said 'I'm very sorry to tell you that we've got the biopsy back and you've got breast cancer'. The next thing I remember I was lying on a bed. I'd fainted and Tim and Lester had picked me up."
Whittaker received her diagnosis last year just days after hearing that her Weatherfield character Sally Webster was to battle the disease. She is now thought to be on the road to recovery and will soon return to work.
BRAVE Sally Whittaker today tells how the medic advising her on Corrie character Sally Webster's breast cancer battle suddenly started treating HER.
So grateful ... Sally with chemo nurse Mina Edwards
Jim Clarke
The petite actress was left reeling after learning she had the disease for real just as her Weatherfield alter ego was told she had it too.
Last week the 46-year-old soap stalwart had her final session of radiotherapy and is now in recovery.
On the eve of her return to the soap, she recounts her amazing story as she goes back to the hospital to visit the doctors and nurses who saved her life - and fellow patients who lifted her spirits.
Inspiring ... Sally with fellow patients Lynn and Emma
Jim Clarke
Sally tells The Sun: "It was like something from a dream, completely surreal. One moment I was talking to the consultant about how my character would cope with cancer - the next thing we're having the conversation about ME.
"I didn't think it could be me he was talking about. I thought, 'I've been doing scenes about Sally Webster's breast cancer all day and now I come here and you're telling me I've got it?'
"I couldn't take it in and I just collapsed."
The grim coincidence even stunned the consultant, veteran cancer surgeon Lester Barr, who already knew Sally well through her work for The Genesis Appeal breast cancer charity, which he chairs.
Fiction
He says: "I'd been helping the writers with Sally's scripts so I just couldn't believe it, I really couldn't.
"It goes to show that true life can be stranger than fiction. I wasn't expecting her to faint either. I had to carry her on to the couch with her husband Tim."
Sally came round convinced she was going to die. Then thoughts of how her kids - Phoebe, 15, Sam, 13, and six-year-old Hattie - would cope without her flooded her mind.
In good hands ... Sally with surgeon Lester Barr, left, and Doctor Alan Stewart
Jim Clarke
She says: "I suppose it's human nature to think you might die but I was thinking, 'No, I'm a mother. I've got three kids. I can't die. I need to be here for them'."
Fortunately, Sally's early discovery of a tiny lump in her breast and subsequent trip to the Corrie nurse, Corinne McParland, saved her life.
Corinne advised her to see Lester immediately and Sally says: "She has been brilliant throughout my treatment and I can't thank her enough for being there for me."
Sally had initially dismissed the lump as a blocked milk duct as she had gone through an operation to remove a similar lump years ago.
But her Corrie storyline had brought the prospect that it could be malignant sharply into focus.
She says: "If I hadn't been doing the storyline I wouldn't have done anything about it. Isn't that awful?
"But you don't think it's going to happen to you - it's a defence mechanism.
"We never think it will happen to us and that gets us through life.
"Now I can't believe I wouldn't have done anything. Lester was very optimistic, saying we caught it early so it was treatable.
"So it's no exaggeration to say Corrie saved my life."
Volunteer ... Sally amazes hospital visitors by serving them in shop
Jim Clarke
Sally needed immediate treatment. After an initial lumpectomy she checked into The Christie hospital in Manchester for chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Understandably, her first chemo session filled her with dread.
She recalls: "I was very nervous. You don't know what to expect with chemo. It's fearing the unknown. I didn't know how I was going to feel. I didn't know what to expect from the chemo room and when I arrived I thought, 'Oh my gosh, this is actually happening to me'.
"But I had nothing to fear as the NHS chemo and radiotherapy was handled so professionally and everyone really looked after me."
Her chemo nurse, Mina Edwards, left, with Sally, recalls: "She was very nervous at first but it's a natural reaction. Later we would flick through glossy mags saying, 'Can you believe what she's wearing?' and having a good old giggle."
Sally also got through her ordeal by watching comedy DVDs in hospital with 47-year-old hubby Tim, who has taken the last six months off from his job as a scriptwriter on Emmerdale to support her.
She jokes: "We had The Hangover on one day and we were laughing our socks off. The nurses kept coming in to see if I was all right."
All smiles ... Sally with our own Colin Robertson
Jim Clarke
During her six-month treatment the couple also decided on a therapeutic foreign holiday.
Sally - who now uses her married name, Dynevor - says: "One day we both said, 'Let's go skiing'. So we asked my doctor, Alan Stewart, and he said, 'Yeah, go for it'.
"Well, of course, I had one blip in the chemo and that was the blip. I really didn't feel well so we cancelled.
"It's a shame but one thing we've said to each other after this difficult time is that we will make more time for trips away now, both as a family and just together."
Sally, who lives in Cheshire, has high praise for the other patients she encountered - ordinary women going through the same ordeal she was - and was pleased to help out in the hospital tea shop.
Advertisement
Lynn Ingham, 57, who has had a double mastectomy, says: "If I had any preconceptions about what a Corrie star would be like in person, Sally blew them out of the water.
"She's got so much energy and it's such a joy to see her helping out because you can tell she loves mucking in."
And mum-of-two Emma Barnes, 34, who got breast cancer at just 27, says: "I was surprised to see Sally here because of her storyline in Corrie. But it just goes to show that famous people can get cancer too.
"Sally's been great, chatting to nurses and keeping people's spirits up, but I knew she would - she's from the north west after all." Sally decided to speak out about her cancer with the aim of raising money for The Christie Appeal and The Genesis Appeal.
The Sun has made a donation to both on her behalf in return for this interview.
She says: "Talking about it is a good way of putting it behind me. And talking about it will hopefully encourage more women to go for tests.
"When I walk through The Christie's door it makes me want to help them as they are so amazing. I owe them, big-time. They saved my life so if this is the only way I can pay them back, so be it."
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...#ixzz0nhrcgLMf
CORRIE favourite Sally Whittaker was desperate to get back to work after her breast cancer battle - to sort out her on-screen lesbian daughter and wayward hubby.
Bosses offered her more time off to recover, but brave Sally stepped back in front of the cameras yesterday - just days after her final bout of radiotherapy.
The 46-year-old had discovered she had the disease just as her Weatherfield character, Sally Webster, was diagnosed with it.
Trouble brewing ... on-screen hubby Kevin
(Michael Le Vell) has been cheating
In the second day of our exclusive interview, the Coronation Street legend tells of her emotional return to work following six months of life-saving treatment.
Her on-screen alter-ego has been away staying with her sister, unaware her teenage daughter Sophie has begun a relationship with Sian Powers.
Unsurprisingly, Mum does not approve.
Sally jokes: "She won't be very happy. She'll be shocked but I'm sure she'll be very understanding and supportive when she finds out.
"That's why I've got to go back to work to sort all that out. I know she'll be as understanding as I would."
Cheating hubby Kevin is in for some grief too by all accounts - and Sally still doesn't know about his affair with Molly... or her baby!
She laughs: "Kevin will be in for some nagging."
Sally refuses to wear a wig in real life but she has to for her Corrie part as her character didn't go through the same chemotherapy as her.
"The wig is great. It needed a bit of a trim when I first tried it on but it looks perfect now," she says.
Reunited ... Sally with Corrie actors Michael Le Vell, Brooke Vincent and Helen Flanagan
"It needs to be as the show is going out in hi-definition now so the viewers would be able to tell more than ever if it wasn't right."
Her hair is growing back slowly but she still has to paint on her eyebrows and wear fake eyelashes - something not without its setbacks.
"It was so emotional coming back to work. I just wanted to cry. But I couldn't because I had my false eyelashes on," she reveals.
"I got on set at 9.30am and was really nervous as it had been months since I'd set foot here.
"But when I opened the door to my dressing room there were flowers, cards and presents everywhere."
The thoughtful Corrie team had even changed her door's nameplate to "Sally Dynevor" to mark her decision to use her married name.
Sally couldn't wait to see her co-stars, particularly her on-screen family - Michael Le Vell, who plays Kevin, and Brooke Vincent and Helen Flanagan who play daughters Sophie and Rosie.
"Michael was so happy to see me. We hugged and he joked, 'I hope you can still act'.
Advertisement
"Then the girls came in and we all hugged and all of a sudden the Websters were all back together."
Happily, her first scenes yesterday were a far cry from the heartbreaking moment when Sally went into hospital in January.
"They threw me a party," Sally says of the scenes that will air in July. "It's Sally's birthday so the family celebrate in the garden.
"It felt like a welcome back party, which I suppose it was really."
Despite her nerves, she needed to return to work to prove to herself that she had beaten cancer.
And more importantly she wanted to prove it to her family - 47-year-old hubby Tim and kids Phoebe, 15, Sam, 13, and Hattie, six.
Sally explains: "My children are desperate to have their life back to what it was before.
"I told them at the beginning that everything would be fine.
"Going back to Corrie will show them that once and for all."
"I've beaten cancer and so has Sally Webster. It's time to move on."
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...#ixzz0nlIKkcqI
Good on Sally glad to hear she is back to work.
I wonder when Sally will be back on screen?