Coronation Street’s Summer Spellman (Harriet Bibby) is, next week, diagnosed with type one diabetes.
The character has been struggling in the wake of Seb Franklin’s (Harry Visinoni) death, unable to shake the feeling that she somehow is to blame for his tragic demise.
The guilt is inevitably having an effect on her, and Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank) and Todd Grimshaw (Gareth Pierce) are starting to grow seriously concerned about her.
And they’re left shocked next week, when she collapses.
‘Physically, this is her body is telling her to stop and check itself,’ actress Harriet Bibby told Metro.co.uk. ‘Billy has been very worried about her, she’s just found out that they think she’s got an eating disorder and is quite cross.
‘During a heated discussion with Billy, she collapses. Billy then is obviously very shocked and worried, they get her into the ambulance and take her off to hospital to find out what’s up.’
In subsequent scenes, Summer is diagnosed with diabetes, news which according to Harriet, comes as a ‘shock’ to the young woman.
‘It’s a massive shock. I think a lot of people have heard of diabetes and you go: “oh yeah, they’ve got diabetes, okay”, but I don’t think a lot of people know what it actually is and what actually happens to your body, because I know I didn’t when we started discussing this storyline.
‘I was like: “Oh, she gets diabetes, but what actually is it?” So I think when she’s diagnosed, you have this huge hit of: “Oh right, I’ve got this lifelong condition that I’m going to have to deal with but actually no, I don’t even know what that is or what I have to do to control it”. So yeah, I think she’s a bit scared.
‘I think finding out you have a lifelong condition that you’re going to have to deal with, you don’t wrap your head around it for a little while.
‘We’ve spoken to Diabetes UK while we’ve been in the run up to this storyline and I think that’s what a lot of people struggle with when they’re diagnosed, is: “Actually, I’m going to have to live with this for a long time”, and I don’t think Summer does really realise that.
‘She relies on Billy to help her with her medication, and I don’t think as a teenager she likes being told what to do.
‘You have to stay on top of your medication because otherwise it can have domino effects on your health.
‘So yeah, I think we see a little bit of that teenage rebellion and difficulty with coming to terms with having to maintain doing your medication and things like that. It’s tricky.’
One to watch: Monday June 21 at 9pm on ITV.
All of next week’s Coronation Street episodes will be available to stream on ITV Hub from Monday morning.
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