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| Beverley Callard and husband Jon on BBC North West Tonight |
Beverley spoke to the BBC as part of the In The Mind mental health season. She described collapsing on the Corrie set in 2009 after feeling unwell for 18 months.
"I knew I wasn't myself and I knew I wasn't firing on all cylinders. I just didn't think anyone like me would have [depression] because I'm a strong, feisty female."
Beverley, who is now an ambassador for mental health charity Mind, said: "For the first six months out of hospital, I couldn't write my own name." She still takes medication, adding: "I occasionally fight the demons but, more often than not, I'm doing very well."
Beverley said the response from her Corrie colleagues was "amazing" but remembers a person "way behind the scenes" suggest she should not take part in the live episodes marking the soap's 50th anniversary in case she became "flaky and unreliable".
"Anybody who really knows me knows I'm not flaky and unreliable - even on the day I collapsed I was still filming till 8 o'clock at night but some people don't understand," she said.
A ITV spokeswoman said the organisation took "their duty of care as an employer extremely seriously" and would "always strive to help any employee who is suffering from ill health or is dealing with personal issues".
You can read the full interview and watch the video on the BBC website.
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4 comments:
I watch a fair number of old Coro episodes on VCR and she is like a new different woman on episodes now. She is a pleasure to watch now.
I watch a fair number of old Coro episodes on VCR and she is like a new different woman on episodes now. She is a pleasure to watch now.
I couldn't believe how different she looks au naturel as opposed to her character on Corrie. She looks great and so does her husband. They look so good together. I hope she starts to feel better and doesn't let things get her down. She deserves a lot more than that.
Thank you Beverly Callard for speaking so openly about your illness. The more people discuss this subject with honesty and candor, the more it becomes normalized and recognizable, and that will lead to more people realizing they have a problem and need to seek help, which in turn will lead to better funding for research and treatment. Maybe someday soon mental illness will be no different than any other illness and the stigma will be gone!
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