I can’t bear to watch Sinead dying after my real-life cancer hell

CORONATION Street’s Sally Dynevor couldn’t bear to watch Sinead Tinker’s death plot – because it brought back memories of her real-life cancer torment.

Sally, who has played Sally

Webster on the soap for 33 years, battled breast cancer

– just like her character.

And she says watching

Katie Mcglynn play out

Sinead’s final days this week was unbearable as it brought back dark memories for her.

“I just can’t watch it,”

Sally said.

“I think they’re doing a brilliant job, so brilliant it makes me not want to watch it. Only because it’s self-preservation. I don’t need to keep going there.”

In 2010 she told how she found a lump in her breast while preparing for a storyline in which she has the disease. Sally took six months off work and was given the all-clear after chemotherapy.

Recalling the moment she found out she had cancer, the mum-of-three, 56, said: “I fainted when I was diagnosed. I woke up on a bed, looked at the doctor and said, ‘I’m so sorry, you’ve got me mixed up with my character. “That’s my character.’

“And he went, ‘I’m so sorry, it’s you. You’ve got breast cancer.’ “I was like, ‘This is not happening to me.’ I phoned our producer and said, ‘I’ve got breast cancer, but it’s fine. I’m going in next week to have the lump removed and then I’ll be back at work. So keep the story going because we need to tell this story.’

“I had the lumpectomy and thought I’d be back at work the next week. But the reality was it had spread and I needed chemo.

“I was in total denial. I never thought it would happen to me.”

Almost a decade later Sally says the trauma lives with her.

“Even now it’s all mixed up in my head,” she admitted. “I don’t think I’ve dealt with it about who this has happened pp to. I still do have the fear. I don’t think it ever goes. It stays with you.

“It does get better but it’s always there at the back of your mind.”

Still, she hasn’t let it hold her back and is getting ready to climb up to Everest Base Camp to raise money for the charity Prevent Breast Cancer.

“I’m great now,” she told BBC Radio 5 podcast You, Me and the Big C. “I really appreciate everything, I’m living every day. As much as it was awful, it’s ten years now.

“Having cancer has opened some wonderful doors and I’ve met some really nice people.”

She praised Corrie’s heartbreaking storyline, which saw young mum Sinead die from cervical cancer on Friday after being diagnosed while pregnant.

“It’s really important for soaps to tackle these storylines. It’s a good message to get out there about checking,” said Sally.

“My important message to anybody i s to check your boobs.

“If you see the slightest thing t that is not right go straight to y your doctor. Don’t take no for an answer.

““It can happen to anybody at any ag age.”