CORONATION Street’s Sally Dyvenor is determined to stay on the soap until old age and claims her role was a ‘beacon’ through her cancer battle.
The actress – who has played Sally Webster in the ITV soap for 34 years – is the soap’s seventh longest serving star and has no plans to leave Weatherfield any time soon.
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Sally, 57, has revealed that her role on the soap helped her get back on her feet after her battle with breast cancer, which happened at the same time her on-screen character Sally was also receiving treatment for the illness.
“Corrie was a beacon actually,” she told the Sunday Mirror.
In 2009, Sally’s character Sally was at the centre of a hard-hitting storyline where she discovered she had breast cancer.
And shortly afterwards, the actress was diagnosed with the condition herself after finding a lump.
Sally underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy for her cancer, and after a six-month break she returned to the soap in July 2010.
“I realised how important my work is to me and I was desperate to get back, because as soon as I got back to work, I could try to put it behind me, which I think I have done,” she added.
While on-screen Sally has just fled Weatherfield to escape her abusive father-in-law Geoff Metcalfe, Sally says she is determined to stay on the cobbles as long as she can.
And she hopes to give the likes of soap legends Bill Roache, 88, and Barbara Knox, 86, a run for their money.
“When I look at Bill, Barbara and Sue Nicholls , they’re incredible,” she said.
“Nobody knows their lines better than them.
“I hope I’m still in the show in my 70s and 80s – if they’ll have me! I’m very sociable, I love coming in to work and I want to keep going as long as I can.”
She added that she would love nosy neighbour Sally to become “more of a busybody when she’s older”.
“But I’d like her to be there for people, so she’s someone that people felt they could talk to – she’s also quite caring,” she added.
Sally’s decades on the cobbles will be chronicled in a special tribute show Coronation Street Icons this week, with an episode focused solely on Sally Webster.
The special episode will see the actress speak about how the soap’s hard-hitting breast cancer storyline coincided with her own battle with the illness.
Fans will be pleased to hear the episode will also look back at Sally’s marriages to Kevin Webster and Tim Metcalfe, her relationships with daughters Rosie and Sophie and her brief reign as Mayor of Weatherfield.
