Corrie star Beverley Callard reveals breast cancer diagnosis

Callard, 68, played the role of Liz McDonald on Coronation Street from 1989 to 2020.

She is now set to appear in Irish soap Fair City as a new character named Lily, the long-lost mother of existing character Gwen Connolly.

Her first appearance is scheduled to air on February 19.

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Callard said: “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 Callard played the role of Liz McDonald on Coronation Street for 21 years. (Image: PA)

Beverley Callard reveals breast cancer diagnosis

On the eve of her Fair City debut, Callard has revealed she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

The former Coronation Street actress, speaking on RTE’s Late Late Show on Friday (February 6), said she is in the “early stages” and will be going ahead with further treatment before returning to the screen.

Callard said: “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’.

“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.

“But 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’m along with thousands of other women as well.

“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.

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“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.”

She added: “I just thought, the world is full of strong, feisty women and I love strong, feisty women, and I just thought, rather than read about it in a newspaper and it all be distorted and everything else, I just said it, so that’s it.”

Will you be watching Fair City from February 19 to see Beverley Callard back on TV again? Let us know in the comments below.