Coronation Street actress Liz Dawn was heartbroken when she was forced to give her grandson’s wedding a miss due to ill health.
The 77-year-old actress, who is best known for playing Vera Duckworth, on the soap has been a long-time sufferer of the incurable lung disease emphysema.
But she has just revealed that she is about to undergo a serious operation to tend to an ongoing heart condition she has.
According to the Sunday People, Liz is so poorly right now that medics suggested that it was safer for her to stay home, which meant she would not be in attendance at her grandson Thomas Borso’s wedding in the Alpine town of Bassano del Grappa last Friday.
The 29-year-old married Alice Coughlin, 27, who also just happens to be the niece of Coronation Street actress Debbie Rush, who plays Anna Windass.
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“Naturally I am very disappointed not to be there with them,” Liz said.
“They make such a lovely couple, it’s every grandmother’s dream and Bassano is such a lovely setting.
“But to get there was just too difficult, it would have meant a flight to Venice, accessing and exiting the plane in a wheelchair and then a car journey from the airport to Bassano.
Liz says she is hoping her upcoming heart surgery will give her energy a boost.
“At the moment I’ve got no energy but once the operation is done I will be looking forward to being back to my normal self and getting my energy back.
“I’m in very good hands, and want to thank everyone at the hospital.”
Liz has had a troublesome time with her health over the years.
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In 2004, she was diagnosed with emphysema after years of heavy smoking and was told that she had just a third of her lungs still working.
In 2013 she had a heart attack while on holiday in Spain and had a pacemaker fitted.
She quit Corrie in 2008 when Vera died but came back as a ghost a few years later when on-screen husband Jack Duckworth passed on.