After cancer fight and my marriage break-up I'm so SO happy to be here

When Vicky Myers received a shock cancer diagnosis in the same year she went through a tough divorce, she was forced to put her acting dreams on hold.

- VSUE CRAWFORD

Struggling to make ends meet - even taking in ironing to help pay the bills she took a two-year break from the endless round of auditions to work in an office, while raising her teenage daughter Meghan.

But Vicky refused to give in, and now, not only has she been promoted to a permanent role on Coronation Street, as the Mirror revealed earlier this month, but her character DS Lisa Swain has been front and centre of the Roy Cropper arrest plot all this week.

It has been a long time coming - DS Swain is the fourth character she's played on the ITV soap, but the only one to become a main cast member.

Speaking for the first time about leaving behind her struggles with illness and that acrimonious break-up, Vicky reveals how she's appreciating every minute of her dream life.

"I don't know if it's my previous medical history, but I am so proud to be here and just to be living each day to the full," Vicky says.

"When my husband and I split up, I was quite down, bitter and vengeful, and when I was told I had [cancer], I remember thinking, 'If this is it for me, I've missed out on all this time with my daughter and I haven't really been the best person that I wanted to be.

"The diagnosis re-centred me and made me focus on what is really important and what makes me happy.

"Now, every time I go into work and see the Coronation Street sign, it's quite overwhelming"

Vicky, 48, has spent the past three years making occasional appearances as no-nonsense DS Swain, investigating the acid attack on Daisy Midgeley and Stephen Reid's murderous reign.

But bosses have given her a full-time role, and she is fully centre stage after arresting Roy for suspected murder, following the disappearance of teenager Lauren Bolton.