The news came as the former Liz McDonald actress moved to Ireland for her new role
08:08, 07 Feb 2026Updated 08:25, 07 Feb 2026
Beverley Callard when she was in Coronation Street(Image: ITV)
Beverley Callard has been diagnosed with breast cancer. The former Coronation Street actress, 68, has moved to Ireland to star in Dublin-based soap opera Fair City but received her devastating health news just 20 minutes before she was due to film her first scenes.
And, Beverley was shocked when doctors gave her the news and asked her to return to the UK immediately for treatment. Speaking to Patrick Kielty on Ireland’s The Late Late Show, Beverley said: “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.”
However, despite her shock over the diagnosis, Beverley insisted she is doing well as they have caught the disease in the early stages. She said: “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.
Beverley was joining a new soap when she got the news(Image: Beverley Callard TikTok)
“It’s early stages. I travel back to the UK tomorrow (February 7), just for a couple of weeks. They’re going to test lymph nodes and lymph glands and all that.”
Beverley will have some treatment and tests in the UK but is determined to be back in Ireland in “just a few weeks” to continue filming her new role. She said: “I need an operation and some radiotherapy, and then I’m coming back to Fair City, so I will be back in just a few weeks.”
Beverley is best known for playing iconic Coronation Street character Liz McDonald and thrilled Irish fans when she signed up for long-running soap Fair City. She will play Lily, the long-lost mother of Carrigstown resident Gwen, played by co-star Emily Lamey.