Beverley Callard has spoken to fans after undergoing her first round of radiotherapy treatment, having been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer earlier this year.
Diagnosis and Initial Treatment
The former Coronation Street star received the shock health news just 20 minutes before she filmed her first scenes on Irish soap Fair City, where she plays Lily Patterson. She had relocated to Ireland for the role alongside her husband, Jon McEwan.
Following her diagnosis, Callard had three lymph nodes removed as a precaution to prevent the cancer from spreading. She later explained that her consultant said the surgery "went really well" and that they managed to "cut the cancer out."
Radiotherapy Update
Callard recently learned that she should have started radiotherapy sooner and had been waiting to begin the treatment process. She shared an update after her first session on Thursday, July 2.
In a video, she said: "It was fine. Nothing to worry about at all, just for those of you who have got it coming up. They took me to this huge, like, X-ray room and a big scanner in there. I had to take off my top half and jewellery, as you do, and then lie down in exactly the same position as I had for the body mapping, which was a couple of weeks ago now."
She added: "There were two lovely women in there, fantastic. And then, they left the room, switched the machine on, and there's just, like, a series of lights flashing, and I just lay there with my eyes closed, and it lasted 11 minutes. Then they said to me, would I like to see the professor? Did I have any questions? To be honest, you know, you build it all up in your head, I just thought, no, I just want to go home."
Callard continued: "I can ask him any questions I may have next week, but my next session is tomorrow at 6pm. And that was it, really. But as I say, nothing to worry about at all."
Alongside the post, she wrote: "1 down…9 to go! That was as easy and pain free as it could have been. Straight in, 11 minutes with the big machine and I was free to go. Back again tomorrow… and if you’re about to go through something similar, it really wasn’t bad at all."
