Emmerdale landlady Chas Dingle is one of soap's biggest and bravest characters - so her new breast cancer storyline is an emotional wrench for actress Lucy Pargeter.
On screen, Chas learns her cancer is caused by the faulty BRCA2 gene and that her children Aaron (Danny Miller) and Eve could have inherited it.
Filming the scenes has taught Lucy a lot about breast cancer – and she hopes that by default, it teaches viewers about the symptoms of breast cancer too and what to look out for. “It’s widely known that everyone should be checking our breasts and it only takes five minutes in the shower but there’s always something else to do isn’t there?” says Lucy. “Hopefully a lot more people are checking regularly, and men too.
It isn’t just a female thing.” Chas’s lump was found by Dr Liam Cavanagh (Jonny McPherson) during a passionate clinch and Lucy says that she takes exactly the same approach herself, laughing, “I try to get somebody else to check my boobs and incorporate it into a more fun event!” Joking aside, since Lucy had her DD breast implants removed in 2019 after 11 years, she’s found checking her breasts for any lumps or changes to be much easier. “Checking my breasts is so much easier now,” says Lucy. “Before I couldn’t check what was behind the implants, now I have my tiny little French tits, as I call them, it’s so much easier.
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