Emmerdale’s Sally Dexter has opened up about her breast cancer storyline – and thanked her brave body double Bridget.
In emotional scenes shown almost exactly a year ago, her character Faith Dingle unveiled the results of her double mastectomy.
And on This Morning today (Thursday 29 March), Sally paid tribute to the lady who helped her film the moving breast cancer screens.
She told Phillip and Holly about how meeting cancer survivor Bridget prompted them to change the storyline.
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She explained: “It did [change it]. I remember seeing the script originally and they had it the other way round. I was a bit upset that I had had this row with my daughter, I took the bra off and burst into hysterical tears looking at myself [in the mirror].
“But having met Bridget I thought, ‘We can’t do that’. That’s not what it is at all. It’s evidence of her survival. That last look [on screen] was to say, ‘We’ve come through this, I can come through anything’.”
Now the actress is stripping off for a good cause in ITV’s The Real Full Monty: Ladies’ Night.
She joins seven other celebrities daring to bare all – including Loose Women presenter Coleen Nolan, broadcaster Victoria Derbyshire, reality TV star Megan McKenna, former Liberty X singer Michelle Heaton, comedienne Helen Lederer, actress Ruth Madoc and presenter Sarah-Jane Crawford.
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Talking about her Real Full Monty experience, Sally said: “It couldn’t be any further away from a salacious stripe tease. It’s a celebration of being alive.
“We were there [watching the boys one]. We had to go in another direction. The boys were so naughty and cheeky. They loved it.”
However she continued: “We said, ‘We can’t in this post Harvey Weinstein world, we can’t just have a group of women going on stage and [just] stripping. We can’t agree to that. But the choreography is magnificent – a real show of strength.
“It was quite an extraordinary thing. I thought after my experience with Emmerdale and Bridget that I wouldn’t think twice about getting the old ‘bebubbalubbas’ out. I didn’t think it would worry me at all. The main thing I was concerned about was whether to get a fake tan or not.
“It was quite strange. I thought I had got it completely sorted in my mind, until I left the dressing room behind me walking to the stage and standing by the side of the stage. Then it really hit me.”
The Real Full Monty: Ladies’ Night is on at 9pm on Thursday 29 March on ITV. The show will not be shown live, but instead has been pre-recorded.
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