Coronation Street's Beverley Callard shares fear in final health update before 'big operation'
Beverley Callard has shared a final health update as she prepares to undergo her "big operation" amid her early-stage breast cancer battle.
Beverley Callard fears how she will look after her operation amid her early-stage breast cancer battle.
The star - who got her heartbreaking diagnosis 20 minutes before filming her first scenes in Dublin-based soap Fair City - shared her panic about being "lopsided" in her last health update video, shot from the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, before having two lymph nodes removed.
Towards the end of the clip - which Beverley shared to Instagram on Friday (20.02.26) - she said: "I'm feeling OK.
"And then sometimes, you get these self-indulgent feelings and vanity, but I'm not alone. This other lady said she's just the same.
"I keep thinking, 'Will I be lopsided?' 'What will I wear?' But I'm really good, I'm really strong, and I'll let you know how it goes.'"
At the start of the video, Beverley - who is having two lymph nodes removed as a precaution to ensure the cancer does not spread - shared how she had bonded with other patients.
The Coronation Street alum - who has been married to Jon McEwan since 2010 - said: "I'm at the hospital, it's the big day, which I'm glad about. I'm ready, I'm strong, I feel fine.
"Jon's had to go home now, they've sent him home. There are a few other ladies here with me, so we've had a chat and talked about feelings."
Beverley - best known for playing icon Liz McDonald on the ITV soap from 1989 until 2020 - then detailed how medical staff had prepared her for the "big operation".
She said: "They've been in, and they've drawn all over me, and then I have to go for an injection in an hour."
Keeping her humour, Beverley joked about her anaesthetist.
The I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! 2020 campmate quipped: "And then the anaesthetist came in, he's called Peter.
"He's actually quite dishy, so there we go - I won't tell Jon that!"
Beverley got her lymph nodes and lymph glands tested for cancer on February 11.
And in the actress' Wednesday (18.02.26) health update video, she said doctors are "pretty sure that [the cancer] is not in the lymph nodes", but were removing two "to make sure", adding: "So it's quite a big operation I'm having, but I trust them completely."
Beverley then praised the staff at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital - which is run by the National Health Service (NHS) - for being "truly amazing" to her and every other patient.
She also shared that she had cleaned her house non-stop to take her mind off having the operation.
Beverley said: "So I've got tomorrow to get through. The waiting is the worst bit, I have to tell you. The house is so clean because I can't stop and think about things.
"So one more day tomorrow, and then it's the operation. But I'm feeling strong and positive.
"And let me know if you're going through it, and how you're feeling. Truly, your stories mean a great deal to me."
As well as feeling "scared" about the operation, Beverley admitted she was "forcing myself to eat", and her daughter Rebecca had to reminded the star that she is "as hard as nails" and "can cope with anything", amid stress in Beverley's emotional February 15 health update video.
On February 6, Beverley announced her breast cancer diagnosis during an appearance on The Late Late Show.
She told 55-year-old host Patrick Kielty: "It's difficult to know where to start.
"I knew I was coming over here for four weeks, and then I'd have a couple of weeks back in the UK, and then back here - for a long time
"I'd had some tests just before I left the UK and literally 15 to 20 minutes before [her first scene] I was in my dressing room at Fair City, getting ready to go on, and I was quite nervous and thinking, 'I hope everybody thinks I'm all right, whatever.'
"And my consultant rang me and said, 'You've got to come back to the UK.' I said, 'Well, I can't possibly, you know, I've just taken a new job, I'm away for a month.'
"I was diagnosed with breast cancer."
Beverley stressed that the disease was caught early, saying: "I'm fine. I'm absolutely fine. My head was a bit mashed for the first few days. It's very early stages, and I'm along with, you know, thousands of other women as well.
"It's early stages. I travel back to the UK tomorrow (07.02.26), just for a couple of weeks. They're going to test lymph nodes and lymph glands and all that."
Beverley - who hopes to still play Lily, the long-lost mum of Carrigstown resident Gwen, played by co-star Emily Lamey, in Fair City - added she needed "an operation and some radiotherapy".
