Former Coronation Street star Sue Cleaver has spoken out about her Type 2 diabetes diagnosis.
Sue, 61, bowed out of her Eileen Grimshaw role after 25 years earlier this month.
The much-loved character left Weatherfield for a new life in Thailand after confessing that she had fallen out of love with George Shuttleworth (Tony Maudsley).
Having been given the chance to invest in son Jason Grimshaw’s (Ryan Thomas) bar, she decided to make her trip to Southeast Asia permanent.
Sue announced her exit at the beginning of the year, explaining that she wanted to explore new avenues.
Now, ahead of taking on a new theatre role, she has discussed her health and how she felt faint while filming scenes on the ITV soap two decades ago.
‘I think there is a lot of misunderstanding around diabetes, people tell you can’t eat chocolate or sugar – but where I struggle with my diabetes is when I’m about to go on stage or when I’m about to go on Loose Women or live shows’ she said.
‘Before I go on I’d have to prick my finger and check if my sugar is stable enough to get me to the interval or do I need to eat.’
Continuing to The Sun, Sue added: ‘If I’m about to go on stage or live shows and I don’t know if I’m going to make it if my sugars aren’t stable enough, and I don’t have time to prick my finger, you tend to think: “Let me eat this thing now”, and then you tend to feel the effects of it later or the middle of the show.
‘But with Dexcom (a glucose monitor), I just have to look at my phone and see my sugar levels, it takes all of the worry out of it.’
The star also spoke about her exit story, and how she wanted it to mirror her real life decision.
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‘I’m chuffed with my Coronation Street legacy,’ she said.
‘They gave me a wonderful send off and the ending that I asked for and I wanted Eileen’s exit to mirror what I feel I’m doing and what I want other women to do – to live fearlessly, don’t let fear hold you back, be who you want to be.
‘It’s never too late to try something new, that’s what I wanted for her, this realisation for her to go ‘hang on a minute, I don’t have to stay, I can do something completely different, all it takes is courage.’
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