CORO STAR’S PLEA
‘I want to meet my greatgrandson’
Ailing Liz Dawn hopes to meet her great-grandson
‘OUR VERA’ IS GRAVELY ILL IN HOSPITAL AND HER FAMILY FEARS THE WORST
Her legendary Coronation Street character Vera Duckworth died suddenly and unexpectedly, nodding off in her armchair and never waking again.
But when her time comes, actress Liz Dawn is not going without a fight. The star has been battling the deadly lung disease emphysema, and last week complications left her in hospital struggling to breathe and fighting for her life.
She’s doing a lot better now, according to her spokesman, who says she’s “quite chipper”, but it was touch-and-go for a while, and Liz’s husband Donald and their children Graham, Elizabeth, Ann-Marie and Julie feared the worst.
“She’s been in and out of hospital quite a few times in the last few years, and normally the family are quite upbeat,” says a friend. “But this time they were more concerned. She wasn’t in a good way and her loved ones have obviously been worried.”
However, Liz (77) refused to give in to the disease because she wanted to be able to meet her new great-grandson, says the source. The baby boy – her third great-grandchild – was born to grandson Luke Ibbotson and his wife Nicola the week she was rushed to hospital in Manchester with chest pains and fluid on the lungs.
“Liz had a very traumatic and difficult few days but she was determined to get better to see the new baby,” says the insider.
Liz, who played Vera on Coro for 34 years, was diagnosed with emphysema in 2004 after staff on the show sent her to the doctor because of concerns about her breathlessness. A heavy smoker from the age of 14, she immediately gave up but her health has continued to deteriorate.
She also has heart problems and in 2013 had a pacemaker fitted after suffering a heart attack.
Emphysema was the reason Liz left Coro four years after being diagnosed, because she was too ill to do her job properly.
“Even walking across the set left me shattered and breathless,” she tells. “I was so tired, I couldn’t even learn my lines. I kept them hidden in the frying pan or on a plate of sandwiches when we were shooting scenes in the café, or on the table behind the sugar bowl in Vera’s house.
“The camera boys were great. They’d shout things like, ‘Liz, just move that sauce bottle a bit to the left to hide the piece of paper.’”
After leaving Coronation Street in 2008, Liz was put on medication that gave her a new lease on life for a while.
“There’s nothing that can be done to repair my lungs because emphysema is incurable, but at least they are as good as they can be and that’s made it possible for me to get out of the house,” she said at the time.
However, by 2013 she was struggling again, describing her health as “very bad”.
“I have only got a third of my lungs now and I do get so breathless. I can’t walk for more than a few steps without needing my chair. I worry about going out. I need to know where I am going. Will there be stairs? Will there be a lift? How will I manage?
“I can’t pop down the road for a paper or a pint of milk. I have to rely on my husband Donald for a lot.”
After her diagnosis, Liz agreed to become an ambassador for the
British Lung Foundation, encouraging people to get tested for lung disease.
She revealed she thought she had asthma before tests showed that in fact her breathing problems were due to emphysema, which weakens the lungs and reduces the amount of oxygen they can send to the bloodstream.
“So many people are suffering from lung disease who don’t know it,” she tells. “They think they have asthma when it’s not. It is vital to get it checked out and not leave it for years like I did.”