Fiction became my REALITY
WOMAN'S OWN|September 28, 2020
Melanie Clark Pullen, 44, was playing a film role, but real life began to show some similarities
CLAIRE O'BOYLE, FRANCES LEATE
Fiction became my REALITY

Feeling the studio lights warm my face, I leaned forward and delivered the lines I’d practised so many times before in rehearsals. ‘I’m sorry, but you’ve got breast cancer,’ I told the actress, Lesley Manville, as she sat in front of me.

It was July 2018, and as a jobbing actress, I’d had roles in EastEnders, Casualty and performed in the West End, but I was particularly excited about this role – playing a doctor in the film, Ordinary Love, starring Lesley and award-winning actor Liam Neeson as her on-screen husband.

The film was about a middle-aged married couple – Joan and Tom – as they faced a devastating breast-cancer diagnosis, and the many ups and downs it brings. Acting in a film about something that affects so many people carried a huge responsibility. Two members of my family had had breast cancer and a very close friend, too.

Thankfully, they had all survived, but so many of the patients they had become friends with during treatment hadn’t, and I felt very privileged to be part of a film depicting what these brave women had to endure. When I wasn’t acting, I loved spending time with my family – husband, Simon, 44, and my three children, Grace, Gabriel and Raphael, aged from four to 10.

A few months after filming had finished, in December 2018, the children were spending the day with Simon’s dad, Ivan, then 81, so Simon and I took the rare opportunity to spend some alone time together, including a few hours in bed.

Only, as we prepared to get up, Simon turned to me, a fearful look in his eyes. ‘I think I felt a lump,’ he whispered, looking down at my chest. ‘A lump?’ I repeated, touching my breasts and searching. My hand trembled as I felt a hard little lump under my nipple on my right breast.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 28, 2020 من WOMAN'S OWN.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 28, 2020 من WOMAN'S OWN.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.