Corrie star opens up on 'bitter' divorce and skin cancer struggle that led her to soap role

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Coronation Street's Vicky Myers has discussed the concurrent cancer struggle and divorce that preceded her career-high role as DS Lisa Swain. "I don't know if it's my previous medical history, but I am so proud to be here and just to be living each day to the full," she told The Mirror, 14 years on. "When my husband and I split up, I was quite down, bitter and vengeful, and when I was told I had [cancer], I remember thinking, 'If this is it for me, I've missed out on all this time with my daughter and I haven't really been the best person that I wanted to be.The diagnosis re-centred me and made me focus on what is really important and what makes me happy. "Now, every time I go into work and see the Coronation Street sign, it's quite overwhelming." The skin cancer diagnosis was miraculous to some extent, with a doctor chancing upon a suspicious mark on the 42-year-old soap star's leg while she was accompanying her young nephew for a heart condition check-up. "Within five days I was in hospital," recalled Vicky. "I was wearing three-quarter length combat trousers that day.

You can roll them up into shorts, which I did in the car just before the appointment, because it was a really hot June day. "It's quite incredible to think that if it had been a miserable day the doctor would never have seen the little dark mark on my calf.

I definitely had an angel watching over me that day." Six months after her scare and reconstructive surgery, the actress could return to her passion of auditioning, but fast-forward to 2013 and the consistent rejection was weighing her down.

According to Vicky, when the phone didn't ring she was forced into making ends meet by doing people's ironing before snagging a job full of potential at a casting.