Beverley Callard revealed she ‘cried like a baby’ after her dressings were removed for the first time on Wednesday, after undergoing breast cancer surgery.
The Coronation Street actress, 68, revealed she is battling the disease earlier this month, after being diagnosed just after she’d relocated to Dublin to start her new job on Irish soap Fair City.
In an update on X, Beverley said she refused to let her devoted husband of 15 years Jon McEwan come into the appointment with her, despite him urging her: ‘Please don’t shut me out’.
She said: ‘I had to do that by myself. I got there. I was really nervous and I sat there in the waiting room of the breast clinic.
‘I just looked around at the women in there. It went from all walks of life from a teenage to a little old lady. I just thought to myself, “we are so brave. This is amazing”. Cancer touches everybody in some way.
‘I just thought I can do this.’
Beverley Callard revealed she ‘cried like a baby’ after her dressings removed for the first time on Wednesday, after undergoing breast cancer surgery
Beverley said she was called into her appointment and had the dressing under her arm removed first, which revealed quite a large hemotoma.
A hemotoma is a collection of clotted or partially clotted blood outside of blood vessels, often causing swelling, pain, and discoloration.
Beverley said the consultant doesn’t want to operate on it unless she has to, but will have to go to hospital next week to have surgery on it.
She continued: ‘As she came to change the dressing, I was feeling really strong and all ready for it, thinking about these incredible women.
‘She took the dressing off and I looked down and saw myself for the first time and I just thought: “I can’t do this”. ‘
The actress said she told the nurse she couldn’t look at herself in the mirror, despite being gently encouraged.
‘I went downstairs and out of the hospital. Jon was there waiting for me. I got in the car and cried my heart out like a baby. I wasn’t strong at all then. I’d lost the whole lot.
‘I’m sure we all go through that. I did come home and I did look at myself and I did show Jon. I did get through it in the end. If anybody else is going through that part of it now, god love you. You can do this.’
In an update on X, Beverley said she refused to let her devoted husband of 15 years Jon McEwan come into the appointment with her, but she later showed him her post-surgery scars
Fans took to the comment section to tell Beverley: ‘You are amazing Beverley. Your openness and genuine honesty about how you are feeling and dealing with this is inspiring’
Fans took to the comment section to tell Beverley: ‘You are amazing Beverley. Your openness and genuine honesty about how you are feeling and dealing with this is inspiring and will help so many others. I can only imagine how you felt leading up to having the dressings removed. You did it and you are talking about it’;
‘Honestly Beverley, I have so much admiration for you and what you’re doing. Not only fighting your own battle but helping so many other people that aren’t strong at all. There will be lots of scared people and your vid diaries will be a godsend for them. I’m in awe of your strength’;
‘Bev you’re showing massive courage, sending best wishes’.
Beverley announced earlier this month she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery shortly after.
While she reassured fans the cancer was caught early, she explained she would need to return home to Norfolk to undergo radiotherapy and surgery.
Beverley had her operation on Friday to remove two lymph nodes, as a precautionary measure to make sure that cancer had not spread.
Heaping praise on the medical staff at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, the actress admitted the surgery had left her feeling ‘really sore’ and exhausted and not able to eat much.
While she assured that she was ‘doing okay’, she got candid about her concerns over what her body looked like under her dressings, admitting she was ‘scared’ she wouldn’t still be attractive.
‘I‘ve done nothing, to be honest,’ she said in a video update. ‘But I was really, really tired. Got up, had a bit of breakfast, but I’ve got no appetite whatsoever at the moment, but I’m trying. Jon’s force-feeding me.
‘And then I went back to bed, fell asleep, then I got up for an hour, went back to bed again. I was like that all day. I didn’t even comb my hair. I could not be bothered.’
Beverley – who is best known for playing Liz McDonald on the cobbles from 1989 until 2020 – then made the heartbreaking admission that she was preoccupied with thoughts that Jon wouldn’t want to have sex with her anymore.
The star – who has been married to the recording studio owner since 2010 – said: ‘I’ve still got dressings on, so I don’t know what I look like, and I’m scared of that.
‘I keep thinking – maybe too much information – but I think will Jon and I still be swinging from the chandeliers? Not right now, but you know what I mean.
‘Will I still be attractive, or not? So all that’s going through my head.’
Beverley was flooded with comforting words from her friends and followers, who insisted that she was ‘stunning’ and just needed time to heal.
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world and affects more than two MILLION women a year
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. Each year in the UK there are more than 55,000 new cases, and the disease claims the lives of 11,500 women. In the US, it strikes 266,000 each year and kills 40,000. But what causes it and how can it be treated?
What is breast cancer?
It comes from a cancerous cell which develops in the lining of a duct or lobule in one of the breasts.
When the breast cancer has spread into surrounding tissue it is called ‘invasive’. Some people are diagnosed with ‘carcinoma in situ’, where no cancer cells have grown beyond the duct or lobule.
Most cases develop in those over the age of 50 but younger women are sometimes affected. Breast cancer can develop in men, though this is rare.
Staging indicates how big the cancer is and whether it has spread. Stage 1 is the earliest stage and stage 4 means the cancer has spread to another part of the body.
The cancerous cells are graded from low, which means a slow growth, to high, which is fast-growing. High-grade cancers are more likely to come back after they have first been treated.
What causes breast cancer?
A cancerous tumour starts from one abnormal cell. The exact reason why a cell becomes cancerous is unclear. It is thought that something damages or alters certain genes in the cell. This makes the cell abnormal and multiply ‘out of control’.
Although breast cancer can develop for no apparent reason, there are some risk factors that can increase the chance, such as genetics.
What are the symptoms of breast cancer?
The usual first symptom is a painless lump in the breast, although most are not cancerous and are fluid-filled cysts, which are benign.
The first place that breast cancer usually spreads to is the lymph nodes in the armpit. If this occurs you will develop a swelling or lump in an armpit.
How is breast cancer diagnosed?
- Initial assessment: A doctor examines the breasts and armpits. They may do tests such as a mammogram, a special X-ray of the breast tissue which can indicate the possibility of tumours.
- Biopsy: A biopsy is when a small sample of tissue is removed from a part of the body. The sample is then examined under a microscope to look for abnormal cells. The sample can confirm or rule out cancer.
If you are confirmed to have breast cancer, further tests may be needed to assess if it has spread. For example, blood tests, an ultrasound scan of the liver or a chest X-ray.
How is breast cancer treated?
Treatment options which may be considered include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone treatment. Often a combination of two or more of these treatments are used.
- Surgery: Breast-conserving surgery or the removal of the affected breast depending on the size of the tumour.
- Radiotherapy: A treatment which uses high energy beams of radiation focused on cancerous tissue. This kills cancer cells, or stops them from multiplying. It is mainly used in addition to surgery.
- Chemotherapy: A treatment of cancer by using anti-cancer drugs which kill cancer cells, or stop them from multiplying.
- Hormone treatments: Some types of breast cancer are affected by the ‘female’ hormone oestrogen, which can stimulate the cancer cells to divide and multiply. Treatments which reduce the level of these hormones, or prevent them from working, are commonly used in people with breast cancer.
How successful is treatment?
The outlook is best in those who are diagnosed when the cancer is still small, and has not spread. Surgical removal of a tumour in an early stage may then give a good chance of cure.
The routine mammography offered to women between the ages of 50 and 71 means more breast cancers are being diagnosed and treated at an early stage.
For more information visit breastcancernow.org or call its free helpline on 0808 800 6000
