CORONATION Street legend Beverley Callard has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
The 68-year-old was given the shock news last month – just 20 minutes before starting her new job on Irish soap opera Fair City.
Beverley – who starred on I’m A Celebrity in 2020 – has been told she will have to undergo an operation and radiotherapy.
She is also returning to the UK this weekend for tests to check the cancer has not spread.
Beverley told RTE’s Late Late Show, hosted by Patrick Kielty, on Friday: “I’ve had some tests just before I left the UK, and literally, 15, 20 minutes before I was in my dressing room at Fair City, getting ready to go on, and I was quite nervous and thinking, ‘I hope everybody thinks I’m all right’, whatever.
“And my consultant rang me and said, ‘you’ve got to come back to the UK’.
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“I said, ‘Well, I can’t possibly, I’ve just taken a new job’. I said ‘I’m away for a month’, and I was diagnosed with breast cancer.”
Reassuring fans about her health battle, Beverley continued: “I’m fine, I’m absolutely fine. My head was a bit mashed for the first few days.
“It’s very early stages, and I am along with thousands of other women as well.
“It’s early stages, I travel back to the UK tomorrow, just for a couple of weeks, they’re going to test lymph nodes and lymph glands and all that.
“But then I need an operation and some radiotherapy, and then I’m coming back to Fair City, so I will be back in just a few weeks.”
Beverley quit her iconic role asRovers Return landlady Liz McDonaldin 2019 after 30 years on-screen.
She started her new role as Gwen’s long-lost mother Lily in Fair City last month with plans to move over toCo Wicklow with her husband.
Speaking about being offered the part she told RTE: “I got asked to do it almost a year ago now, and I said, ‘Oh I don’t know if I can do another soap, I don’t know whether I should do that’.
“And they said, ‘well, just have a look at it’.
“In the UK it’s quite difficult to get and so I was watching it on my computer, and I just became addicted to Fair City and I just thought, this is fantastic.
“The editing is so good. The scripts are amazing. Got my husband to have a look at it. And I said, ‘I can’t say no to this’.”
Beverley was recently forced to hit back over accusations she had been using fat jabs after showing off her toned figure online.
She insisted: “Listen I have worked out my whole life and I have been working my ass off, literally.”
How to check your breasts
It is important to regularly check your breasts for any changes.
Breast tissue reaches all the way up to your collarbone and across to your armpit, so it’s vital to check these areas too.
If you feel or see any changes in your breast you should always consult your GP.
CharityCoppaFeel! recommends checking your breasts monthly, so you can pick up on any changes quickly.
Breasts do change naturally as part of your monthly menstrual cycle, so you should get to know your breasts, how they feel and what changes they usually go through to know if anything is out of the ordinary.
Five-step check
There is a five-step self exam you can do at home to check for any changes.
Step one: Begin by looking in a mirror, facing it with your arms on your hips and your shoulders straight. You should be looking for any dimpling, puckering, bulging skin, redness, soreness, a rash or changes in the nipple.
Step two: Still looking in the mirror, raise both arms above your head and check for the same changes.
Step three: With your arms still above your head, check for any fluid coming from the nipples. This can include milky, yellow or watery fluid, or blood.
Step four: While lying down use your opposite hand to check each breast. Using a few fingers, keeping them flat and together, go in a small circular motion around your breasts. Make sure you feel the entire breast by going top to bottom in these small circles. It helps to develop a system or pattern to make sure every inch is covered. Use light pressure for the skin and tissue just beneath, medium pressure for the tissue in the middle of your breasts, and firm pressure to feel the tissue at the back, feeling down to your ribcage.
Step five: Feel your breasts while either standing or sitting, using the same small circular motion.