Coronation Street spoilers follow.
Coronation Street has confirmed the full details of Bethany Platt’s upcoming storyline, which will see the character face the reality of the dangers of cosmetic surgery.
It was announced last month that Bethany would soon become insecure about her appearance and subsequently travel to Turkey for cosmetic surgery, with the procedure having serious consequences.
The storyline will begin with Bethany being offered a new job by Debbie, with the role requiring an advertisement to be written about a company offering cosmetic surgery.
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After accepting the role, Bethany decides to see the company with her own eyes as she opts for a liposuction procedure at the clinic, but it turns to disaster as she is admitted to hospital after contracting sepsis.
Her boyfriend Daniel immediately rushes to the airport after receiving a call from the hospital, with Bethany finding out that she will have to live with a permanent stoma following the botched surgery.
To make matters worse, Bethany neglected to mention the procedure when filling out her travel insurance, leaving the family scrambling as they try to raise funds in order to have her discharged from hospital.
“When I first heard about it I was pleased that they have trusted me with it because it’s an important storyline and of course I really enjoy doing issue-based storylines,” said Lucy Fallon, who debuted as Bethany in 2015, of the storyline.
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“Obviously this is really hard-hitting, which is exciting from an actor’s point of view, but it does come with quite a lot of pressure and responsibility to get it right because this happens to real life people.
“The storyline is also incredibly important as there’s countless horror stories out there of people talking about their experiences of cosmetic surgery abroad. I really hope this storyline can make people rethink going abroad for cosmetic surgery.”
The storyline has been developed in collaboration with Colostomy UK to ensure the utmost “accuracy and sensitivity”, with Giovanni Cinque, marketing & campaigns manager at Colostomy UK, sharing a statement upon the announcement.
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“We’re really excited that one of the UK’s most-loved TV shows is going to feature a major character living with a stoma,” he said. “Even though public awareness has grown considerably over the last few years thanks to a number of celebrities revealing they have had surgery, the challenges that the 200,000 plus people living with a stoma in the UK face are less known.
“[This] means that we as a society and as individuals are not as aware as we should be of the choices that we can make to positively improve their quality of life. We really hope that Bethany’s journey will go a long way in helping to educate the audience, and thus help to create a more Stoma Aware UK. It’s also been a pleasure for us to work with the behind-the-scenes teams at Coronation Street on this story.”
Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
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