Coronation Street has confirmed a traumatic botched surgery storyline for Bethany Platt (Lucy Fallon) after a procedure in Turkey goes disastrously wrong.
On Monday, fans of the ITV soap saw Debbie Webster (Sue Devaney) persuade the aspiring journalist to accept a trip to Turkey to write an advertorial for a friend’s new cosmetic surgery company.
She will soon decide to undergo liposuction at the clinic, but is left in a critical condition after contracting sepsis.
Bethany’s life will then be changed forever, as the botched procedure leads to her needing a permanent stoma.
After her boyfriend Daniel Osbourne (Rob Mallard) takes a terrifying call from the Turkish hospital, her makes a dash to the airport to be with her.
However, things get even more complicated when it’s discovered Bethany did not declare the surgery to her travel insurance, leaving the Platts desperately trying to work out how to raise the funds needed to allow Bethany to be discharged.
The storyline was conceived amid the number of UK patients seeking corrective treatments from botched cosmetic surgeries performed abroad rising by 94% in the last three years.
On her upcoming storyline, Lucy Fallon said: ‘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.
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 ITV soap has also worked closely with the charity Colostomy UK after deciding to feature a character living with a stoma bag.
Giovanni Cinque, Marketing & Campaigns Manager at Colostomy UK, added: ‘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.
‘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, which 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.’
