Soaps actress icon Beverley Callard has revealed she’s been diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 68.

The former Coronation Street star received the news just as she had relocated to Dublin to appear in Irish soap Fair City, for which she is initially filming for four weeks before a much longer stint.

Beverley explained that she heard she had cancer ‘literally 15 to 20 minutes before’ she filmed her first scene for her new job, while she was waiting in her dressing room.

Announcing the news live on RTÉs The Late Late Show, the actress will now be flying back to the UK for surgery and radiation – although luckily doctors caught her cancer early.

‘I’d had some tests just before I left the UK and literally 15, 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”,’ she told host Patrick Kielty.

‘And my consultant rang me and said, “You’ve got to come back to the UK.” I said, “Well I can’t possibly, I’ve just taken a new job, I’m away for a month”.’

She then continued: ‘I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

‘But 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, thousands of other women as well.’

Beverley then explained her treatment plan, adding: ‘I travel back to the UK tomorrow, just for a couple of weeks. They’re going to test lymph nodes and lymph glands and all that.

‘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.’

After her announcement the show shared that they were sending her ‘lots of love and well wishes’ in a post on Instagram as fans flocked to support her.

‘I love you… amazing that you have put it out there on your terms! You’ve got this, like I said, one of the strongest women I know,’ praised fitness influencer Leigh Linton.

‘You’re incredible Beverley ❤️ we’ll be waiting for ya with open arms,’ added Ali Fox, while the TV star was also praised as a ‘true inspiration’ and sent ‘strength and love’ by many of her fans.

She was also thanked by many in the comments for sharing the news on her own terms and ‘encouraging other women to get tested and catch this dreadful disease early’.

Beverley is joining Fair City as a new character named Lily, long-lost mother of existing character Gwen Connolly.

She said that her and her husband will be moving to Co Wicklow, adding ‘we truly love it so much. It’s blowing us away’.

After acting in Corrie from 1989 to 2020, Beverley said she was looking forward to her first appearance on the Irish soap opera, which will hit screens on February 19.

She explained: ‘I got asked to do it almost a year ago now, and I said, “Oh I don’t know if I can do another soap, I don’t know whether I should do that”.

‘And they said, “Well, just have a look at it”.

‘In the UK it’s quite difficult to get and so I was watching it on my computer, and I just became addicted to Fair City and I just thought, this is fantastic.