LUCY Fallon revealed there’s a tough road ahead for Bethany Platt in her harrowing health ordeal when a cosmetic surgery goes wrong in Coronation Street.
This autumn, Coronation Street’s Bethany Platt is set to face a life-changing trauma when a cosmetic procedure in Turkey goes disastrously wrong.
Bethany accepted a job with a cosmetic surgery company to write an advertorial on their new facility in Turkey after being approached by Debbie Webster (Sue Devaney).
She then makes the decision to undergo liposuction at the clinic.
But viewers will see Bethany in a critical condition after contracting sepsis as a result of a botched procedure, leading to her living with a permanent stoma.
Bethany’s boyfriend, Daniel Osborne (Rob Mallard), is the one to take a call from the Turkish hospital with the horrifying news that she is in intensive care and makes a dash to the airport.
Things worsen as Bethany never declared the surgery to her travel insurance, leaving the Platt’s desperately trying to work out how to raise tens of thousands in medical bills needed to allow Bethany to be discharged.
Talking about Bethany’s upcoming storyline, actress 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.
“So, I really hope this storyline can make people rethink going abroad for cosmetic surgery.”
She added how Bethany’s decision to get liposuction was a spur of the moment decision as her confidence is quite low, especially after she was groomed by Nathan Curtis (Christopher Harper).
More recently, Bethany has felt insecure in her relationship with Daniel Osbourne (Rob Mallard).
She thinks Daniel still has feelings for his ex fiancé Daisey Midgeley (Charlotte Jordan), despite her moving on with Ryan Connor (Ryan Prescott).
In Turkey, upcoming scenes will see Bethany’s mum Sarah Platt (Tina O’Brien) break the news to Bethany that she will have a stoma bag for life, and that her insurance is void as she never declared her surgery.
Bethany will be left devastated by the news as Lucy revealed: “Bethany will take it really badly because obviously it wasn’t her intention to get the surgery in the first place so now that she has not only affected her own life, but severely affected everyone’s life around her, she’s going to feel horrifically guilty.
“Now that the pressure is on the Platt’s to raise the funds to pay for her medical bills and get her home, she’s just going to feel like it’s the end of the world.”
Bethany is the daughter of Sarah Platt (Tina O’Brien) and her classmate Neil Fearns (Paul Holowaty). Sarah fell pregnant at the age of just 12-years-old, much to the horror of her family.
When she was a child, Bethany’s was involved in a major storyline when she took ecstasy tablets. This was when her uncle, David Platt (Jack P. Shepherd), hid them in her doll.
The character departed the soap in 2007 with her mum for a new life in Milan. Her return storyline saw the teenager run away back to Weatherfield with a new actress as Lucy Fallon took over the role.
Storylines since then have included major school bullying. Her teachers said she was skipping school as she told them that she was attending grief counselling. Sarah and David soon realised that Bethany intercepted letters and emails from the school. She was being tormented by a group of girls, which included her mainbully Lauren (Shannon Flynn).
Gary notices the bullying and reports it to the school. Due to several incidents, Lauren makes out that Bethany is the bully and they are both suspended. During this time, Bethany helps David out at the salon and Lauren comes in for a treatment. David then threatened her to leave his family alone. This was before she was expelled from the school after other girls came forward about the torment.
Bethany was later at the centre of one of Corrie’s darkest storylines when she fell under the spell of her older boyfriend and sexual predator Nathan Curtis. The controversial scenes saw Nathan groom and manipulate the 16-year-old before coercing her into sleeping with his friends, with one of them raping her.
The storyline was based on a real life story and also drew inspiration from the child sex abuse ring in Rochdale, which saw nine men jailed in 2012.
Talking about whether a fitted stoma will affect her relationship with Daniel, Lucy continued: “Definitely. At first, she’s embarrassed and worried about being intimate and actually, it’s made her feel even more insecure than she ever felt before.
“Daniel is a really supportive boyfriend so I think with him trying to support and encourage Bethany, she will ultimately just push him away because of her insecurities.”
The Blackpool-born actress as worked closely with Colostomy UK to prepare for the storyline adding: “I had a meeting with two people from the charity who gave me a lot of insightful information and told me their thoughts and experiences of life with a stoma.
“They also spoke about what life was like for them after getting a stoma fitted, their struggles, what has changed and what hasn’t changed which was really helpful listening to everything they had to say.
“I’ve been doing a lot of my own research on social media like TikTok where you can actually watch people changing their stoma bags and hear about their experiences too.”
Lucy teased: “The next couple of months are definitely going to be really challenging for Bethany.
“I think her biggest struggle will be coming to terms with the fact that this is something she’s done to herself.
“Hopefully in time, which I know she will, she’ll start to accept what’s happened and realise that having a stoma hasn’t actually affected her life as much as she probably thought it wouldl.
“But I do think it will take a couple of setbacks and bumps in the road to eventually get there.”
Meanwhile, Helen Worth has quit Corrie meaning her exit as Gail Platt is imminent – but the soap is keeping the circumstances of her exit under wraps.
However, Dee-Dee Bailey actress Channique Sterling-Brown has leaked that the Platt house will go up for sale.
After posting a photo from the set during a night shoot, fans are convinced it will be linked to Gail exit storyline.
Helen confirmed earlier this month she had signed her final contract and would leave the soap at the end of 2024.
She said: “This year felt like the perfect time to leave the show after celebrating 50 years in the most wonderful job on the most wonderful street in the world.
“The past 50 years have flown by and I don’t think the fact that I am leaving has quite sunk in yet.”
