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ACTRESS Sarah Jayne Dunn has praised Hollyoaks bosses for their hard-hitting new plot.
Next month the soap will feature a disabilityawareness episode as Mandy Morgan struggles come to terms with the ct that her unborn baby on has spina bifida. Gorgeous Sarah, 36 – who has a two-and-a-half-year-old on Stanley with husband on Smith – has been workng closely with a charity to make sure they get it right. Spina bifida is caused by a efect in the neural tube and ffects the nervous system eading to possible sympoms, including paralysis and ain damage. Speaking exclusively to the ily Star, she says: “I love our w. We always deal with se delicate subjects before one else and we’re not afraid ackle them either. Ever since day one, way back when I was given my big childhood-abuse storyline, it’s been groundbreaking and it really does help to bring things out in the open to get people talking, which is really important.
“We’ve been working with a charity called Shine – they’ve been so helpful and of course there’s also our wonderful research team. It’s really opened my eyes, I had no idea how common spina bifida is, and hopefully our storyline will help a lot of people watching who are in the same situation as Mandy.”
Sarah, who has been in the hit Channel 4 soap on and off since
1996, returned to the role for good
18 months ago alongside her on-screen husband Gary Lucy, who plays Luke.
With best friends Darren Osborne (Ashley Taylor Dawson) and wife Nancy (Jessica Fox) having stayed in the village, the fabulous foursome were reunited.
But it didn’t take long for the cracks to appear in Mandy and Luke’s marriage – and she fell into the arms of his best mate Darren.
In true Hollyoaks style their lives were ripped apart when the truth finally came out. Luke ended up in prison while Nancy has had to watch her hubby move in with her former mate.
Outed
Sarah adds: “Mandy and Darren are now together and people are starting to come around to it.
“Obviously they talked about having a baby before the affair was outed and they were an official couple. But the pregnancy came as a complete surprise and really tested their relationship, which is still relatively new.
“And then came the spina bifida diagnosis which led to yet another massive twist for the viewers.”
Last month Mandy went to see estranged husband Luke in prison after doctors revealed that spina bifida is often a genetic condition – raising a question mark over her son’s paternity. Luke begged Mandy to keep the news from Darren, feeling helpless as he’s banged up. Sarah says: “The big disability episode comes as Mandy and Darren are deciding whether or not to have an operation on their baby while he’s still in the womb. “It’s a groundbreaking operation but it comes with risks. Hollyoaks has a lot of people with disabilities in the show and the episode follows Mandy as she bumps into all these different characters – including Brooke, who is autistic.
“She sees all these lovely people leading normal lives and it really helps. She knows it’s going to be difficult but in her heart she also knows that whatever happens it’s all going to be fine.
“They’re still deciding what to do but the pregnancy is going to be tough and complicated.
Lucky
“I really love being back and can’t believe how lucky I’ve been with the storylines that they’ve given me. I really am more than happy to stay as long as they’ll have me.”
But while Mandy is facing one of the most challenging times in her life, Sarah couldn’t be happier in her personal life. She and Jon got hitched in May and, although they went for a long weekend together back then, they flew out to Barbados to celebrate in style just before Christmas.
She adds: “We are very lucky. We went to Barbados which was also part of our honeymoon.
“Stanley is now two-and-a-half so we thought this might be the last chance we’d be able to do something like this over Christmas because next year he’ll be fully immersed in the magic of it all.
“We made sure we did the traditional family Christmas before we left, but the day itself we spent on the beach.
“It was our first Christmas as a married couple and it does feel more official.
“Even though we already had the baby and a dog and we lived together, it just cements everything we have.
“We’re like a proper old married couple. Even my mum says she can’t believe how married we are now but it’s so nice.”
Hollyoaks continues tonight at 6.30pm on Channel 4 with the E4 First Look episode airing straight after at 7pm.