Former Coronation Street actress Tracy Shaw, who played Maxine Peacock in the ITV soap from 1995 to 2003, has shared an emotional update after visiting A&E during her breast cancer chemotherapy treatment
Coronation Street actress Tracy Shaw was left in tears following an emergency visit to A&E. The 52-year-old, who portrayed Maxine Peacock on the ITV soap between 1995 and 2003, revealed earlier this year that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and has since embarked on gruelling rounds of chemotherapy in her fight against the illness.
The former soap star took to Instagram with a fresh update, appearing in a hospital bed as she emotionally described how difficult it can be to attend hospital when others present may have comparatively “minor” complaints.
She said: “So I’m in AandE, I had really really high temperatures yesterday and they spiked several times. I didn’t want to go to AandE in the hot weather so my body has suffered today. As a consequence, I came in to AandE early this morning and I just want to say thank you to the NHS and everyone in the AandE department.
“It isn’t easy coming in when we have cancer because there are a lot of people with – I’m not disregarding it – minor things, and some have just drank too much.
“It’s really hard at this point when my immune [system] is so low to get through that part of the department without catching anything else.”
It was at this point that Tracy, who also enjoyed a brief pop career with a cover of the Lonnie Gordon track Happenin’ All Over Again before going on to appear in Casualty, Doctors and a string of theatre productions over the years, wiped away tears as she spoke candidly about the harsh realities of undergoing cancer treatment, reports the Mirror.
She went on to express her gratitude to the medical staff who had managed to find her a private room, while also voicing her frustration over a broken air conditioning system during a sweltering heatwave, as well as workmen moving around her without wearing masks.
She added: “Anyway, thank you to the NHS and all the staff. They’ve been amazing, and they have been able to put me in a separate room for now. It’s really important to try and protect us.
“But I just wanted to raise a few things – the aircon isn’t working in this hospital, and we’ve had workmen here outside my door and one guy was trying to do some work and when the nurse asked if she could close the door, he was really rude to her. Really rude to her. And then the nurse had to go away and it was 15 minutes before she got back.
“He felt like he had a job to do, and he’d put his work bag on the bin which was holding my door open. I’ve normally got a mask on as well, but no one else has a mask on around me.
“Then I had three guys come in…the nurse said the aircon wasn’t working and they said it was. Three guys just walked in, no masks, nothing. It wasn’t working – she was right and in the end they went away and she asked if it was okay if they came back. I said ‘With masks on!’”.
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