This podcast contains the personal stories, opinions and experiences of its

speakers, rather than those of Breast Cancer Now.

We took the podcast on the road to Leeds, very close to the Emmerdale set,

where Lisa Riley is filming her current scenes.

I have never met Lisa before, but I think what struck me was that she's incredibly

down to earth and honest when she's talking about her mother's diagnosis and

her experience of that.

Very emotional.

You will hear Lisa getting emotional understandably about her mother's death

from breast cancer, which is still clearly something so, so raw to her.

But I think the fact that she was so honest and open about that is something

that will resonate with a lot of people.

And one of the things that I think struck me was quite how much work goes on behind

the scenes in a soap like Emmerdale when recording a breast cancer storyline,

something that they poured so much love and emotion into, but also so much

research.

They worked with the team at Breast Cancer Now to make sure they got it right.

What really, really came across to me was just Lisa's boundless positivity and the

humour that she has always used to get through things in life.

And it is clear from everything she told me about her mum, Cath, that all of that

comes from her mum.

So I'm sure that will shine through.

And just in general, it was an absolute breath of fresh air speaking to Lisa.

She put me completely at ease, even though I was aware I was traveling up

to Leeds to interview a big celebrity.

And it was just an absolute joy to speak to her.

So I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.

Today's guest is Lisa Riley, star of our Much-loved ITV soap, Emmerdale.

Lisa plays the iconic character Mandy Dingle.

If you're a fan of the show, you may know Mandy was involved in a breast cancer

storyline last year when her cousin, Chas Dingle, played by Lucy Pargeter,

was diagnosed.

Breast cancer is a subject close to Lisa's heart for a number of reasons.

Lisa sadly lost her mum to breast cancer in 2012.

She later became an ambassador for Breast Cancer Now, supporting the charity's

annual fundraising campaign, Wear It Pink.

Lisa has kindly found time in her very busy filming schedule to talk to us about

her own family history of cancer and what it was like to record storylines about

genetic testing and breast cancer on one of our longest running TV soaps.

Lisa, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you.

I want to miss it for the world.

Thank you.

So let's start with real life, Lisa.

So your mum, Cath, sadly passed away from breast cancer when she was just 58 years

old.

Would you be able to tell us a little bit about her diagnosis and treatment?

Yeah, I mean, I've publicly spoken about what happened to mum and how it's

affected, obviously, myself and all our family.

But it all started with the fact, obviously, I was always filming and my

days off were so precious.

So every Friday, I would always, no matter where I was, if I was in London,

if I was in the North, in Scotland, I would always try and get back to Bury in

Lancashire, where my family, where I'm from originally, where my family still

live now.

So this particular day, it was Italian night and mum got out the shower.

I ran, I was like, as usual, mum, I'm so sorry I'm late.

I've made it.

She's getting out the shower and her towel dropped.

And I was like, OK, I'm a woman.

I know.

I was like, what's that?

And she's like, oh, don't be so daft.

And I was like, what's that, mum?

She's like, oh, and really wanted to cover herself up so quickly.

And I was like, no, no, I want to see what that is.

And she's like, please stop being dramatic.

Anyway, what I could see of mum's areola, it looked the best way, like a deflated

balloon.

That's what I always describe it as, like a balloon that needed air in it.

Like it was being sucked from the inside.

And she's like, it's nothing.

You're just being dramatic.

Well, me being me, I'm not being dramatic.

I want to get it sorted.

And I spoke to my dad really quickly.

My dad was like, as he does, was like, oh, it'll be nothing.

And so that was the Friday night.

She was with the oncologist on the Tuesday morning.

And I'm an actor, Laura.

I know how emotions are and some doctors can't act.

You know, you probably know that yourself and you can read them.

I can read people by the way they are.

And Mr. D'Souza, absolute, incredible, incredible man.

And I owe a lot to Mr. D'Souza.

And he just said, he said, right, Cath, we're going to have you in very,

very quickly.

And he says, I just know by looking at it, that was before a biopsy, everything,

you know, I knew it was going to be bad news.

The tumour was obviously at the front of her breast.

And as we could see, it was, you know, it was sucking.

And that was what she, she was had.

And to this day, and I always say, and I say, don't be an ostrich,

please don't be an ostrich by putting your head in the sand and hope it's going to go

away in hoping that no one will see it.

I mean, where we are nowadays, whereas, you know, this is years ago with

my Mum.

And not that I think that Mum would have had a longer life because I don't.

I really don't, knowing what I do know and how much knowledge I have about oncology

and Breast Cancer Now.

But what I do know is with any form of indentation she might have seen on the

areola, the beginning, maybe, you know, she wouldn't, she would have had more

years with us.

She did survive for 10 years before it came back in the pancreas.

And from then on, I mean, she had the full mastectomy.

She had all her lymph nodes removed.

And I think for Mum, losing her breast really wasn't a problem.

And as you can probably tell, I play Mandy Dingle and me as me as well.

Everything's a joke.

And as a family, I got that from my Mum.

My Mum was full of beans, like energy beyond energy, from seven in the morning

till seven at night all the time.

And I've inherited that from my Mum fully.

And she got through it by being very jovial and a lot of fun, even at the worst

times through her chemo and through her radiotherapy as well.

Um, but what I will say, when Mum lost her hair, that was worse than anything.

Oh, honestly, Laura, like, yeah, I can, I can see her now because work were

amazing.

They signed me off when she was going through her first initial point of

treatment.

And yeah, she just, it absolutely crucified her.

It crucified her losing her hair and even her wound.

She wasn't bothered about it.

She refused to have a reconstruction, which is again, down to whatever anyone

wants.

That's there.

Mom didn't want one.

She said, she always made the joke.

She said that my dad preferred the other one, you know, and that was her way of

getting through it.

She's like, my dad never liked that one anyway.

Um, and so we, we stuck together as we did as a family and, um, and cherished her as

much as we could, but it was very, very quick.

Yeah.

And the chemo was just to see someone you love go through that, you know,

day in, day out.

I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.

I really wouldn't.

She lived for over 10 years from that first diagnosis to when she died.

Did she have a period in the middle where she, you know, kind of got back to life

and, and living normally?

Fully.

Yeah.

I think she genuinely thought that she was absolutely fine.

It was, it was sort of from diagnosis of the secondary.

I remember her saying to me, and she said to me, she went, just don't feel like

myself.

And then when she got her secondary diagnosis, she was like, I knew it'd come

back.

And whether you, I don't know what that feels.

Hopefully fingers crossed.

I never will, but I know in her, she diminished Laura.

She really diminished in herself because I, sorry.

It's okay.

Just take your time.

I think she thought that she couldn't fight anymore.

Yeah.

It's okay.

And I think my Mum and me, one thing she's told me is that fight, no matter what it

is, whether it's your job, whether it's the public cancer.

Yeah.

She fought and like, she never, she would always say, there's someone

worse off than me.

When we were at the Christie, when she was covered in wires and plugs and needles,

she was like, think of the kids in Africa.

And I was like, Mum, look, that's my mom all over.

And I have that in me completely.

But at that time, she did.

And I think I really, for the first time, probably in all my life of my Mum,

my hero, my everything, I saw fear.

I saw fear.

She'd lost her dad.

And I think she'd lost her Mum very, very young.

My Nana, when I was, I wasn't very, I wasn't really young when my Nana died.

And I think she kind of was, she'd come to terms with the fact that she was going to

die.

And Mum being Mum was, it was more, what's Terry, my dad going to do?

What's Liam and Lisa going to do?

That's always the thought.

It's always for someone else.

I mean, that's the, that's the role of a mom, isn't it?

Yeah.

Or the role of a woman even, you know, just thinking about everyone else.

I remember seeing the morning after she'd had the mastectomy and she had a picture

of me and Liam next to her bed and Mr. Stewart, her oncologist and Christie came

in and he said, he said, you must feel terrible, Cath.

You must, he went, you must not feel like laughing.

She's like, no, absolute nonsense.

I'm laughing.

I'm having fun today because of these two.

And that was it.

She said, you can pump me with as much medicine as you like.

She said, but I turn to my left and that photograph is the only medicine I need.

Sorry.

She sounds like an incredible woman.

You'd have loved her.

Yeah.

Everyone said once, always once met, never forgotten.

So hopefully I keep her legacy going.

That's, that's my job now.

Mr. Stewart, mum's oncologist.

He, he was unbelievably kept the family informed throughout everything.

And he wasn't, he wasn't kind of leading us up at the wrong path in what was going

to happen because he was actually a main tutor at the Christie in Manchester,

which is like one of the biggest oncology units in the country.

I mean, we, we joke saying, if you want to get cancer, get it in the North because

you've got Christie's on your doorstep.

This is where I was in 2012 as well.

I also had my surgery at the Christie and my chemotherapy at the Christie.

So it's actually sometimes makes me cry when I think about the Christie,

when I think about my surgeon there.

So yeah.

Mum calls it her safe haven place.

Yeah, totally.

And as Mr. Stewart was a tutor, he said, Cath, he said, I'm not going to

tell any lies to you.

He said, on paper, you should be dead.

He said everything, the size of your tumour, where it is spread.

Initially, he said, you defeat every morsel of medical science.

And, and I do think that's mum's fight.

That's something that a medicine bottle can't give you, you know?

And for that, I'm so proud of her.

I'm so proud of her.

And I remember when we had a fundraizer and Mr. Stewart stood on the, on the

lectern and he said, he said, this woman, he said, whatever I give her is nothing to

her.

And, and, and then for her to survive then a further 10 years.

She, she defied everything, but the Christie is, it is, it's a, it's a

special, you know, a special, special place.

It really is.

I think if I haven't been back there for over 10 years, but I think if I walked

through the door, I would cry.

It would be bringing out so many emotions in me.

Yeah.

But it's an interesting point you touch on because there are, there are different

views about whether a person's positivity and attitude and their, like whether their

mental side contributes to their survival.

And there are some thoughts that I don't think there've been many studies on it,

but there are some thoughts that, that really does contribute.

And obviously that it's a very tricky one because you do get patients who say,

well, you know, does that mean because I'm upset and I'm, you know, I'm not coping

well with it, that I'm hindering my own treatment.

And of course that's not the case.

It's, you know, your medical treatment is one thing.

And sometimes that fight, fight language can, can upset people as well.

But I mean, yeah, certainly, certainly for me getting through it with humour and

getting through it with a lightness and just trying to see, see the good side as

well.

We've always, we've always done that as a family, even like the devout, like I say

devout Catholic, I went to a devout Catholic school, you know, and probably

very lapsed Catholic now.

I'll openly admit that.

But my Mum who was taught by nuns as well, we were always said like you never swear

in church and you never swear at a priest.

Okay.

So it was the morning Mum had had a lot of, a lot of morphine on the day and the

lovely nurses at the house because mom passed away at my home as she wanted that.

She wanted to be at my house with it.

And it was like, it was literally, we joke about it.

It was like a scene from The Sopranos, everyone at the bottom of the bed,

at the bottom of the bed.

And literally my dad said, we're going to have to call the priest.

So father Paul, amazing.

He married my brother.

He married like all the family, all my nephews, my niece, all their,

all their Christenings.

And he stands at the top where Mum and my auntie Joyce was there putting a little

bit of orange cordial on Mum's lip.

And she turned around and she just went, what the **** are you doing there?

She swore at a priest.

And for this, to this day, like we have literally dined out on that story as a

family that the morning Mum actually died that she got to swear at a priest.

It's our favourite thing ever.

And again, that's that humour that through times when you're broken, you're broken to

your core, you know, you speak to all my family and all my friends.

I look back now and they have all said to me as time now has gone past, we never

thought you would leave.

They call it like Lisa's Valley of Doom, but they never thought they were going to

get me back.

They all say that they'd lost me.

You know, what do you mean?

Because you were so broken from your Mum.

And so how did you, because you were in your thirties then.

How did you come back from that?

I mean, I know you, you never get over it, but how, how has your life changed and how

have you felt better since then?

So Mum passed the last week of July.

And in the June, I got a call from the BBC saying, we'd like to interview you for

Strictly Come Dancing.

And take a minute, take a minute if you need to.

And they said, will you come to London and meet the bosses?

Now I was like, wow, Strictly Come Dancing, this is unreal.

And knowing that I'd gone to, you know, to drama school, to dance school.

But I think fundamentally people looked at my size and was like, all right,

she's going to be another Anne Widdecombe.

She's going to be the comedy one.

I was like, okay, I'll be fine with that.

So I had the meeting and you do a trial dance and they were like, wow,

she, she really can dance, you know?

And it's proof that, you know, you should never ever look at someone and

judge anyone because and think you're going to be something.

Yeah.

So I got back for the meeting and our mom was there and she was in bed and she's

like, you're gleaming, you're glowing.

And I was like, Mum, it went really, really well.

I said, but I just, no, I don't know.

And she was like, darling, don't worry about the dancing.

Just go out there and just be you.

And it was those three words, just be you.

Anyway, the inevitable happened in the July and I got the call.

But of course you cannot tell anybody, but I couldn't let my Mum die not knowing

that I was going to be on Strictly, even though I felt she was with me the

whole way.

And every week on Strictly, I went out there and I was like, I'm doing this for

you, Mum, I'm doing this for you.

So what better therapy than doing Strictly.

But then Strictly ended in the February after I'd done the tour.

And that's when I was just like, there was no way out for me.

So Strictly kind of kept you afloat for a period and then it really hit.

Completely.

Yeah.

And I didn't have, because I've been working solidly with Strictly and then I

didn't have a job to go on to because I kind of turned, I thought I need,

I genuinely need a rest.

I need, but in hindsight, I should have stayed on that train fully.

And to take sort of the late February in the march off was really dangerous for me.

And I went to a really horrible place because it was the kind of time where this

craziness, this bubble of Strictly had popped and all of a sudden, my dad was on

the Strictly train with me.

My brother was, it was a great plaster for both, for both, for all of us.

But then my dad was a broken man and I had to be the strong woman.

I was the eldest daughter.

I had to, my brother and my brother keeps everything inside.

And, and, and I'm a very, I'm a leader.

You can probably tell that, you know, that's who I am.

And yet I stopped looking after me.

And that was a mistake.

A lot of people say it's the same with breast cancer treatment.

When people stop the treatment, they stop going for the chemo,

they stop, they finish the radiotherapy.

That's when it hits emotionally.

And I guess it's a similar thing with grief.

You had something to keep you really busy and keep you really occupied.

Also kept you knowing that your mum was there, you know, knowing that she was,

she wanted you to do Strictly and she was so proud of you and everything.

But so what happened next then?

How did you, how did you cope at that time?

Well, I carried on.

I got back on the Strictly bus, shall we say, because I was really lucky

that Craig Revel Horwood, who I'd met on the show, I became wonderful friends with.

He said, we need to tell your life story.

And that would include my mum.

And I was like, what?

He went, I've had this idea.

It's called Strictly Confidential.

And we're going to tour the country for months.

And part of it will be from you joining drama school, from being eight years old

to present day.

And it'll be every element of your career and your life.

And we're going to tell that story through narrative and through dance.

And every night and obviously matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays, we got to play

In My Daughter's Eyes by Martina McBride.

And they did a contemporary dance.

And mum's picture was on.

And every night it killed me.

And I knew when it was coming in the show, it was like 22 minutes into the show.

And, you know, you can't fake that because that was the raw emotion that my mum was

kind of there.

But my mum who'd been there from my career, she was my ally.

When I made a mistake, she told me that it was OK.

You know, when I made a really bad mistake, she still defended me and said it

was OK.

You know, I'd lost my blanket.

I'd lost my blanket fully.

And I didn't know how to cope on my own.

I really didn't know how to swim.

It was and I describe it as like a kid lost their arm wings.

You know, I'd lost my wings and I didn't know how to carry.

And in this industry of mine, which is it is dog eat dog, you know, and I realized

that I'd survived as a woman in this industry because of the wonderful woman

that held me up.

Only she wasn't there anymore.

So this was all strictly was all during a break from Emmerdale.

And you are now back at Emmerdale.

Is it have you ever had a break from it all to really sort of process your mum's

death and give you that time?

Or have you basically just gone from one project to the next and kept yourself

really, really busy?

Yeah, that's what I do sometimes.

Yeah.

And yeah, I love my job.

I care about my job so much.

And what I've realized is through my work, it kind of filters through my family as

well.

And now the new members of my family, my nephews and my niece, who are a huge

part of my life, we wanted to keep mum's legacy alive.

And we do that by doing things like this.

Like they know that now.

And we said at mum's funeral, we're like we are going to laugh and we're going to

talk about it like she's still in the room.

10th of January with the kids, we write postcards, we send them to

heaven.

We go to the postbox and we post them every January 10th on mum's birthday.

And that will be until I die.

That's something we're always going to do forever and ever.

And that's also good for my brother in the way he bottles things up.

But with Emmerdale, I remember saying to mum, you know, I don't think I'll go back.

And then there was producers whilst mum was alive kept asking me to go back.

And I was like, oh, I don't know.

And then I was doing all my other jobs and my other dramas that I've done.

And I was never sort of out of work.

And in the case of like, you know, some people need to go back to a job.

I was very lucky that I didn't need to go back.

And Jane Hudson, who was my boss at the time, she was like, she was also my boss

when I did Waterloo Road.

And she's like, please come back for me.

And so I said, OK, I'm going to do four months.

And I did.

And I swear to you, Laura, here as I sit here now in my seventh year back,

I wouldn't change it for the world.

I'm so lucky.

I've got a real family.

I've got my new family there now.

My family that on the days when I miss her the most, you know, we have our dressing

room.

It's amazing.

Dressing room five is all the Dingle, cue the song, all the Dingle ladies,

all the Dingle ladies.

We're all in dressing room five together.

And there's days where we can read one another and we can we can judge how we're

feeling and, you know, we prop each other.

And like you said, Lucy Pargeter, who portrayed the story line so amazing

for you guys at Breast Cancer Now.

You talked about wanting to continue your mum's legacy.

And you've talked a little bit about what she was like as a person.

But is there, how would you sum her up as a person?

Tell us a little bit more about who Cath was.

Catherine by name, Catherine by nature, Catherine Wheel.

So when you think of the Catherine Wheel, this never, this colour, colour,

vibrant, never stops spinning energy, caring, caring to the point of ridiculous,

you know, for everybody, even before diagnosis.

Yeah, she was so special.

And even now on social media, when things happen at work and things happen.

So therefore, my jobs mentioned social media, people will then message me going,

hi, I'm Billy.

You don't know me, but I was the cleaner at Air Talks where your mum worked for

years.

Your mum kept me going.

And I was like, you know, and I'm reading that, you know.

And then I remember her mentioning like, for example, a Billy or a Claire or,

you know, Dorothy, Dorothy from the canteen.

And she wrote to me on social media.

You don't know who I am, Lisa, but your mum, she used to make me laugh.

She told me to leave my husband and I did.

It's the best thing I ever did.

And that's my mum, you know, but I'm like that now.

You can definitely tell.

Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to say.

As soon as you said Catherine Wheel never stops going.

I was like, yeah, that seems like you.

Yeah.

And that's lovely.

I think when you, you know, you talk about someone you've lost, but you, you clearly

are them.

Yes, and she shines through in you.

And now I'm going to make myself cry.

So it's true.

When people say about my smile as well.

And, you know, in a world where sometimes it can be quite a hard world for people,

I think a smile is free.

It resonates with people and means so much.

And whenever you think of mum, you think of her beaming smile,

even like that last the last month of her life.

The laughter we had looking back was hilarious.

You know, I remember one, you know, one doctor coming in.

She just went, she went to me.

I like him the best.

I was like, why do you like him?

Thinking she was going to say, you know, he was so lovely and he made it

feel better because he looked like Poirot.

How can you say you're like a doctor because he looks like Hercule Poirot?

But for us, every time now we see that last doctor in, you know, that's my mum.

Yeah, I like that.

I like the, it's the memories.

And, you know, you can still make memories up until the last day of your life.

Of course.

And the fact that you look back on the last day of her life with a smile.

I mean, with obviously absolute devastation, but with a smile because of

something she said that made you laugh.

Fully.

It's really lovely.

I've made you cry quite a lot already.

So I'm going to go to Emmerdale and maybe lighten things up.

You took a break for a number of years, but you actually started playing Mandy

Dingle in 1995.

How does it feel to be on a soap for 30 years, albeit on and off?

Yes, July, July, this July is my 30th.

It's incredible.

It truly is.

And it's testament to the producers and the writers.

And some will say me because I do give it my all and I do care.

There's never a day where I phone in an episode or phone in a scene.

Every word I speak has been written because a writer wants me to say it

because a producer wants a story portrayed.

And I care about what I do, no matter how old I'm getting now.

And I am now that I was the kid on the block.

Now I'm the nana on the block.

And it's lovely for all the young ones.

They come to me for advice, Laura, you know, because fame, people think it's

all brilliant.

You know, as I sit here with you now, I'll be 49 in July.

You know, I've been in the public eye since I was 14 years old.

And it's changed a lot.

And now with social media.

So if the young ones need to lean on me, oh my God, of course.

And I'll be there for them.

And I'll be, I'm quite brutal.

I don't, you know, I don't fudge things over.

I don't like, you know, what I call paint the glossy picture.

I go this and this and this and there'll be a repercussion because you can't,

you can't throw fog at people in my humble opinion.

You can't because we live in a world where everyone goes, oh, it's all fine.

Really?

Sometimes it's not.

There is foggy days.

And so by being truthful, people know they can come to me and I'll be there for them

and I'll listen and I'll try and give them the best advice I possibly can.

Certainly from being in the industry, you know.

And is anyone there for you in that, in that way?

Is, do you have, well, you mentioned you have your Emmerdale family.

Yeah.

In your support.

I think if you spoke to everyone at Emmerdale, they'd probably say we go to

Lisa.

Yeah.

They call it Riley's retreat.

So you're the, you're the mama.

Yeah.

Well, do you know what I always say, right?

I didn't have kids for my own reason.

My IVF didn't work.

That's fine.

But I do think in my, and I'm not being all hippie about this, but I think there's

a real energy of life.

There's a reason why I didn't get pregnant because I've got so many kids.

Yeah.

And my shoulders are wide for a reason because I do take things on board for

people.

And I think it's trust and loyalty.

You literally, you can tell me something and it really does go to the grave.

And because I won't sit on the fence as well.

I won't, I never tell people what they want to hear.

It's who I am and I'm never going to change.

And I probably get it from Mum because mom was a no BS person as well.

Sounds like it.

Yes.

So Mandy was involved last year in a breast cancer storyline.

Could you tell us who's who and what happened in that storyline?

Cause I know the Dingle family is quite big.

Yes.

What is it?

Someone said whether there's too many faces to fit on one tea towel.

I love that.

And that's the truth.

Yes.

The Dingles were created now 31 years ago.

And we are a dysfunctional family from the North and yes, there's lots of us.

And inevitably, Chas, who is Mandy's cousin, her Mum, as in so faith also had

breast cancer.

And then Lucy got the call to go upstairs to the bosses because we were going to do

the gene.

Lucy plays Chas.

Lucy plays Chas.

Yes.

Because no one in soap had done the gene storyline.

And many soap operas do breast cancer for the right reasons.

But I think it's the gene storyline that means a lot and will hit home and will

become a massive talking point.

And it did.

Lucy knew that they were never going to kill the character off.

They were going to play it for truth.

They work with Breast Cancer Now.

And they spoke to so many ladies who'd been through it.

Lucy came to me a lot, which was lovely.

And I remember a press day me and Lucy did together.

And it's the day where you go to a recording studio, a bit similar to this.

And you're kind of fed to every studio and you do 40 interviews in one day.

And obviously in the downtime in between, she kept saying, she kept, no,

I went to Lisa.

If I had any questions in the dressing room, I'd ask Lisa and Lisa told me the

truth about how you're feeling the body language.

There was a really lovely moment when Eve, who actually plays in the story now,

my stepdaughter, it's really weird.

My cousin, I'm a stepdaughter.

I know when she married my husband now, it's soap.

And she had her body after she'd come back from treatment.

And I said, Eve wouldn't be able to jump on the couch like that.

Right.

You know that.

So even though we have a lot of advisors on set, we have nurses.

I just said that as a friend.

And so she just kept the pillow like this, a power arms.

And when it went out, I said to the director, you can't have the kid jumping

on because then that would be a different point of the scene.

You don't understand that.

Those are the things that you notice when you're watching TV, even when,

you know, I watch like a thriller or whatever and you see person running away.

They've just been shot in the side, but they're running away like sprinting.

And yeah, when you've had breast cancer, those are the things that you know.

When you see someone, no, they wouldn't be that active.

They wouldn't be that, yeah, able.

It's true.

I know.

We always say on set, we go, don't pull the thread.

That's what we always say to one another.

Like someone go, do you think this could happen now?

And then you just look at everyone and everyone goes, don't pull the thread.

And that happens.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But then obviously when people go through, we like to try and get it really right.

You know, and I know certainly Emmerdale works so hard at getting it right as in

and the truth of the storyline and how you can be.

I think what we covered really beautifully with Chas and Lucy's storyline as an

actress, it was that the fact she was starting a new relationship with Dr. Liam

and how you would feel sexually as a woman.

And we, I thought they did that so brilliantly.

And the fact that she's now dating a doctor, you know, and I thought that was,

there was a lot of, you know, will they, won't they in that?

And I thought that was clever.

Yeah.

That is, that is so important to people because so many people affected by breast

cancer will be watching, you know, Emmerdale is one of the most watched

soaps, one of the most watched TV programs in the UK.

And you will get people watching that.

That's really, really important to people at home.

So if they see those details not done quite right, or if they see them done

really, really right, that is going to, you know, that's going to make them feel

something.

And that's what it's all about, isn't it?

Absolutely.

I mean, I remember personally being in a supermarket where not only people know

what I've been through because I spoke on Loose Women about my Mum and stuff,

but then obviously where they believe sometimes that I am Mandy Dingle and that

Lucy is Chas.

And this particular lady came up to me in the supermarket and she just said to me,

she said, how's Chas doing?

And I was like, oh, she's, she's doing okay.

Yeah.

And she's going, she will survive, won't she?

I was like, well, it's a story and they can't differentiate.

But then I think that's so clever because it really proves that soap hits home,

that you're in their, you're in their houses, Laura, five times a week on a

story that probably look at the stats of today within that household, they will get

hit by breast cancer or a cancer.

So if we can give that awareness over and over and keep giving the cancer

storylines, it's really informative and it's also really helpful because I've,

I know myself, like if I go on a Lorraine Kelly show or this morning and I can talk

about month like I'm doing today, but I think there is something with soap

opera where they really believe that they know us, that the Dingles are their

friend.

Therefore, if it can happen to the Dingles, it can happen to them.

Yeah.

And it's cause we grow up with soaps in the UK.

It's quite a British thing, you know, not every country has their soap and not

every country has their actors that they've grown up with for 30 years.

So they feel like they know you.

Yes.

Emmerdale has won loads of awards for the soap, particularly for these storylines.

Is that right?

It's true.

So what is flabbergasting is the fact that the public are voting for us, right?

But it's because, and people tell me this in the street all the time.

For example, when we were submitted for BAFTA, right?

They used Lucy's storyline, the breast cancer storyline, and then out and about

they'll go, we voted for you because of breast cancer because they were at home

and they thought we'd got it right.

And that's because we'd worked with breast cancer now and used your advisors.

You know, it's wonderful.

So we're winning these awards, which is great and everyone's happy,

but we're winning it because we're getting it right with the medical stuff because

we're in the houses.

And I think that's wonderful.

And it's resonating with people.

And hopefully it's also just getting people talking about those things because

it is hard.

You know, I talk on this podcast about breast cancer and the various elements of

that that affect my life, but I find that hard to have that conversation with the

people close to me.

Sure.

And if you're watching it on TV in your living room, sat with that person close to

you, that might be the thing that starts that conversation.

Of course.

I found a lump or whatever it may be.

I think when they're voting for it, it's their way of saying thank you as

well.

Thank you to the show because they've gone through it.

And if they're watching Chas and they're seeing Chas watch herself, you know,

that inevitable moment when they have to look at their own body after they've had

the mastectomy.

And if they're picking up a pen and actually taking the time to vote,

that's a lot of effort.

You know, in this quick world we live in, it's testament that with the help of

Breast Cancer Now and Lucy's performance that we got it right.

So how is Chas on the show?

She's absolutely fine.

So she's had the mastectomy, had all her treatment and you've now found out that

Aaron, her son, has the gene.

OK, so we're talking about the BRCA gene mutation now.

So tell us a little bit about that storyline.

This was really weird and I'm openly going to speak about it because I have spoken

about it before.

When Mum was diagnosed and Mum eventually died, it was said to me with the BRCA

gene, like, do you want to be tested?

And I said, absolutely not.

And they went, are you sure?

And I said, absolutely not, because I don't want to know anything.

I don't want to know anything.

And they were like, you could tell.

And it's my decision.

It's my body.

I do have an elected mammogram every year that I pay for myself.

Thank God I can afford that.

I will say that I can go myself.

And this is because you're 48, so you're not at the age that you would be

getting a mammogram on the NHS.

Exactly.

Yeah, so it's for my peace of mind and I sleep better at night knowing that.

And I spoke to my brother about it.

He doesn't want to.

So that when we did the press day, that spoke to about with Lucy,

of course, we then did the BRCA gene storyline that would carry on and carry

on.

People are like, Lisa, I'm the same as you.

Thank you so much for publicly saying it.

So I'm out there for the girls and boys that don't want to.

And I live for today.

That's exactly how I live my life, because no one in any which way,

shape or form knows what's happening to them.

Live for now.

And I don't want to know, but that's just me personally.

It's funny because it is just you personally.

And it's great to have both sides of the arguments on this podcast, I think,

because I'm the complete opposite.

Knowledge is power all the way.

So it's slightly different to you because I was diagnosed with breast cancer myself.

I immediately wanted to have that gene test because my grandmother had had breast

cancer in her 30s and I was 29.

So for me, it was just important to find that out.

And at the time, it came back negative that I didn't have the BRCA gene mutation.

But 10 years later, when I got a secondary breast cancer diagnosis, they then were

able to test for more genes, more gene mutations.

And I found out that I have a gene mutation called PAL-B2.

So everyone has BRCA genes in their bodies and PAL-B2 genes.

They are genes that...

So BRCA, BRCA, getting a bit technical.

No, I love it.

It stands for breast cancer.

And it's basically a gene you have in your body that protects you against breast

cancer.

And what it means when you test positive for this mutation is that gene has broken.

So gene mutation just means that your gene has broken.

It's not doing its job well enough.

So therefore it can't protect you against breast cancer in the way that it should.

So that's what's happened with Chas.

And that's what's happened with me, not with BRCA, but with PAL-B2.

And for me to know that it's different because I've already had breast cancer and

have breast cancer.

But for me, it's just another thing that I can take preventative measures to protect

myself as much as possible, which you probably do anyway.

I'd be a liar, Laura, if I didn't sit with you today and go, hold on, look at my gene

pool.

Again, I'll make a joke of it.

I don't wear jeans.

I wear leggings.

I don't want to wear jeans, right?

Because on Pepper, my Mum's maiden name, and Riley, my Mum's bridal name.

So grandma Riley died of cancer.

My Mum died of cancer.

My nana Pepper died of cancer.

I'm not stupid.

However, what I will say to you, the biggest hurdle for me, Mum's

diagnosis.

I said she died at 58.

To get to my 48th birthday and I sit here with you now, touch wood and I'm clear.

Yeah.

Amazing.

That's the hymn sheet I want to sing from because I'd be stupid to look you in the

eye and go, I know what my fate will be in life.

You won't need to go to the doctor when you go for it, you know, when I had

laryngitis.

Do you know when your family have lung cancer?

That's the questions they ask.

Well, yeah, they did actually.

Well, I've just got laryngitis.

Can I have some, you know?

And I had a chest x-ray and I was fine.

But, you know, they are going to...

That is part of how we look at medicine now.

So, but I'm living for now.

So do you think if you found out that you had that gene mutation, you would live

life differently?

Fully.

I'm a self-confessed control freak.

Yeah.

I literally, every pore in my body is control free, right?

And that is something I am in control of me.

Yeah.

I don't want that to be in control of me.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, yeah, I totally get you.

As much as it's a hover, you know, and I will lie in my bed and I say to Al,

my partner, and I say to him all the time, like, I'm going, oh, my genes are garbage.

You know, when he lost his mum's cancer recently, I was like, wow, it's a female

again, you know?

But I won't, I won't live like that.

I won't live like that at all, no.

So in the show, Chas finds out she tests positive for the gene mutation.

Does Mandy then have the test as well?

She hasn't.

No, but knowing the way that the ether of soap works, that'll be because it's called

what's a pocket storyline.

It's like they'll go, right, we'll put that in a pocket just in case.

Yeah.

They can bring that back.

Of course.

At some point, potentially.

And then, of course, Aaron, my nephew, he has now been tested positive,

but they might not, if the show's still here in nine years, whatever, they might

think, right, well, that will lead to that, will lead to that.

Yeah, it's a pocket storyline.

They can plant seeds and they're in control of what water they put on it.

Yeah.

At what time.

How did it affect you personally, playing, doing that storyline,

going to work every single day, doing these really, really emotional

storylines with Chas as Mandy, when you've been through your own personal

experience of this in real life?

Yeah, there's many times at work where sometimes you have this like, can we call

it the crossroads of reality and sort of truth of your own life and stuff like

that.

The bit that I found really hard that I only told Lucy later was Lucy actually had

her implants as her removed years ago and she's quite an advocate of having them

because one leaked and she had her implants taken out.

So as Chas, she had two chicken fillets, right?

And she'd wear them as Chas.

And then what she discussed with Jane when they knew the storyline was happening,

she was going, we're getting rid of the chicken fillets because actually the

flatness of the mastectomy, she'd have nothing.

And I remember being in dressing room five with the girls and Lucy B and Lucy was

just like messing around and she went, and the chicken fillets are off,

they're going.

And I could like see my mum and then I started getting really teary-eyed and she

knew.

And again, a very jovial moment because mum was just like, I remember being in

Tenerife and she went, sod this.

And it drove her mad because mum was a big breasted woman as well so it was heavy,

you know?

And like going through a security, I mean, she was hilarious.

At Manchester Airport, she went, here we go again, here we go again.

Spongy's gonna get fun, you know?

Again, it was all that.

So all the stuff about the chicken fillets was really a point where I went home and I

really, really cried, like really, really cried.

When you're recording the storylines on the show, do you have a protective measure

to sort of not get too emotionally involved or do you just go full in?

When we did the memory episode where it was just the Dingle girls in obviously

Chas's house, which the set of Chas's house, which is the back room of the wall

pack.

And it was Moira and Eden.

Belle has a real name in it.

Charity, Lydia, Mandy and Moira and Chas.

Got it right, yeah.

Because none of the real names.

When we did the memory episode and it was talking about sisterhood and being there

for each other and response we got from the audience was unbelievable.

That day in particular, when they said cut, we really leant on one another

because it's the truth of the stats.

The stats of you've got us actresses in a room similar to this size, yeah?

Portraying a story.

But if you look at the ladies in the room, how many of us it could happen to,

there was truth moments where we're going girls.

And we're all of, you know, Eden's younger than us but we're all girls of a very

similar age.

We're all between 44 and 52, excluding Eden.

What do the stats tell us?

That it's gonna, you know, I'm prime target.

Of course I am.

So yeah, it was a day that we were really emotional in the sense of we lean on each

other as friends rather than, you know, playing the fact that we are cousins in

this crazy family.

And we're lucky with that because we trust one another.

And we're lucky in days where, like for example, last February,

right?

No one will have known that I went for a mammogram this particular day and I went

to the hospital in Leeds, had my mammogram.

I was back in the makeup chair at Emmerdale at quarter past 10 for my makeup

call.

And I was on camera like normal at quarter past 11.

Being funny, being in Mandy's salon all day, right?

At lunch break, I went in and I went, girls, I can't cope, I can't cope.

And they're like, what do you mean?

I was like, I cannot cope.

Because there's days where I have to press the bravado button, but a day like that

where for some reason it was my mammogram number three, my head was playing games

with me.

And I was like, this is the one.

I started saying, third time, not so lucky.

That's what kind of planted.

In my head that I was on my third self-elected mammogram and I had to go and

play Mandy Dingle.

And I did my lunch and I went back to the makeup room.

The girls are incredible.

They're like our therapists in the makeup.

And I went, I'm so sorry.

I'm so, can you please mend my face?

I didn't want to go into it.

I was like, no, I'll tell you another day.

Because again, I had to go and be funny.

I went back on set and I've got Dominic who plays Paddy.

You know, we've been the dearest friends on set.

I trust him like a brother, you know?

And he can read me where it's like, I've just got to get through these scenes

through hook or by crook.

I am literally, I'm acting more than I'm acting.

Does that make sense?

Even more so because I don't want to face today.

I don't want to face the fact that in my head it's swimming and something's telling

me that I've got breast cancer.

And I can't quieten that in my head.

I could not turn the noize off in my head that specific day.

And those days happen.

Do the mammograms cause you a lot of anxiety then?

Or scan anxiety, as we call it in the breast cancer community.

Do you know what's really weird?

And this is the gospel truth is that particular day as well.

Of course, being the ambassador of breast cancer now which I'm so proud of.

There was Breast Cancer Now, posters everywhere in the actual cubicle and the

nurse was amazing.

And I don't think she knew, which is fine.

That's fine.

But it was like it was all coming in on me.

Like it was my time.

It was my time because the room was full of posters and Al, my other half,

he was sat in the lobby of the hospital and he was like, you're different.

He saw I was different.

It was literally like someone was giving me a message and I'd told myself that like

mum from heaven or whatever was saying to me, this is your time and touch what it

wasn't.

But I'm due for one very soon now and I'll be going.

So I'm hoping that I can quiet in my head.

Do you have a thing that helps to escape to kind of get away from that?

Nothing quietens me down.

Al would love a remote control.

I say this a lot.

He'd love to turn me down a little bit.

And I work really hard.

You know, I think I quiet myself with busyness.

So that might sound stupid, but it's the truth.

I have to keep going.

My family and my world.

And it's not such a bad thing being full of energy.

I'm not really a mizerable person.

I don't...

Mizery doesn't sit well with me.

If someone says to me like what, you know, the young and Stacy,

what's your ick?

Yeah, mizerable is probably my ick and negativity.

Like I'm not very good.

I'm not very good with moaning.

So if people moan, I go that you lose me.

It's like the radio turns off.

I hear you on that.

Yeah.

So you go for your elective mammograms.

You're in your late forties.

As we know, we should also be checking ourselves.

Do you do self checks as well?

Yeah, you can't not be the ambassador for BCN.

Do you know what I mean?

And also at work in the men's and the girls' toilets.

We have, you know, from the Lorraine show, we have all the pictures there.

They're on every single mirror, which again is wonderful.

Just by being in the loo, when you're in your own little mindset, you're looking at

going...

People have come to me at work and said like, and I always go, don't neglect your

armpits.

Because I think people do, people think and it's like, no, you know, go to your

armpit as well.

So yes, I won't be an ostrich about things like that.

Yeah.

And men as well, of course, it's not just women.

Of course, really important.

Literally everyone should be checking themselves, shouldn't they?

They really, really should.

And also, it can be a real talking point now.

We're talking about my mum, which she was years ago, and I know because of social

media, it's really great that we can get it out even more.

But also, when you're on a night out, it's okay to talk about it.

If you feel anything that's remotely different that you...

Come on, we know our own bodies, we do.

That reflection you see in the mirror.

Anything that you feel is not your normal, ring the GP.

Because as we started this, my mum was an ostrich.

Don't keep your head in the sand.

Don't be an ostrich.

You say, what's your mantra of life?

That's mine.

With any form of cancer, do not be an ostrich, because that extra three months

could save your life.

And we know that with the stats.

The stats now are brilliant.

So do you have a particular method of checking yourself?

I think mirror and body is the first great one.

And you look at your body head to toe, and you are very aware.

We are.

When you're in the shower, that's always really good.

And I say that to everybody.

I say to my friends, you don't just wash yourself.

With the campaign, you have TLC.

Touch, look, check.

It's amazing.

When you're in the shower, just touch, and then look in the mirror, and then

check yourself all over.

It's a really easy thing to think.

TLC, as tender loving care, we know the very famous song as well.

It's important to kind of use that method in your head and use those words,

if that's what you're doing.

And also, with your partner as well.

You can check yourself, but sometimes, I know this happened to a friend of mine,

it was their partner that basically was like, that wasn't right.

And then, lo and behold, it was something.

She's fine.

She's absolutely fine now, but why not?

TLC, look after one another.

And I think that is really important.

And that's something that you can say to your friends.

You touch, look, and check.

It's really simple.

And also, it's important to know that you're not looking for something.

You're just checking.

You're just checking for what's normal.

You're not looking to find something that might be breast cancer, because in most

cases, there's not going to be anything to find.

No, I spoke to one of the...

It was actually one of the classroom attendants at my nephew's school.

And this is so interesting, because again, when people...

You just said that about, you know, it's always a lump or dimpling,

or like what could be like cellulite.

And hers, because we spoke about this in the playground, it was just a tiny dot,

right?

And she thought, of course, she thought it was like a little skin nick, or,

you know, she might have caught herself with a bra strap or anything.

And of course, over two months, that dot, and it was the tiniest,

like literally smaller than an earring, Laura.

Smaller than an earring.

And she just went to have it checked.

It was breast cancer, you know?

Something that over time, she just thought, no, after like month number two,

this isn't right.

And of course, it turned out to be breast cancer.

She's fine, thank goodness.

Great.

That's it.

It's getting to know what's normal over time if something changes.

Fully.

And if something changes over time, go to your doctor, go to your GP.

And always, can we please reiterate this, because this is so important.

Like, and I've spoken about my mum, but the ostrich thing.

Never, ever, ever think you're wasting doctor's time.

Oh, no, absolutely not.

Do you hear this a lot?

Yes, yes.

And I hear it so much.

No, even if the world we live in and I didn't get an appointment, you will get an

appointment.

You will.

Even if it's a Zoom call or it's a phone call, just make that contact.

Don't kind of watch daytime TV and go, and they're doing a breast cancer time

and, you know, a section and a topic on breast cancer.

If they see and you do have something that's different, please contact your GP,

because it's so important.

But there's so many people that say that, oh, I didn't want to waste doctor's time.

Why not?

I mean, that is literally their job.

But also, a doctor would much rather you go with the early symptoms of a breast

cancer or just a lump or something small in your breast, than you go a year down

the line when you've got back pain and breathlessness and all sorts of other

things, which means it's at a much later stage potentially.

So yeah, just go as soon as you can.

Yeah, when they say nip it in the bud, literally nip it in the bud.

You can hear yourself saying that, you know, so do it.

Put it into action.

TLC, nip it in the buds.

Always.

Yes.

So just going back to the show, I know that the show's writers and you and

Lucy, I think, worked with Breast Cancer Now on the storyline.

How did you and Lucy research the role and how did you work with Breast Cancer Now on

that?

So Lucy was given the option to speak to survivors and what's called how her body

would be.

So again, sitting and to tell the narrative.

She, as an actress, chose not to do that.

She wanted her interpretation and how her mindset.

She's played Chas for all these years.

She knows that Chas isn't, you know, she's like a go get a woman.

She's fierce.

She's girl power.

She wanted to still portray that.

And then when it came to those moments as an actress, when she was on her own,

she wanted to play that real vulnerable that literally the curtains were dropped.

And that's what she wanted.

She was the landlady of the pub, you know, invincible.

So she didn't kind of want to talk to anyone that was going through it or had

gone through it.

She just wanted to do it as Chas, how she thought this kind of it's my pub.

Come on, fun, fun, fun in front of the family.

Everything's great.

And then all the scenes in her bedroom, in the back room, she's going to break and

break and literally the curtains are going to fall.

So I respect her for that.

She was asking me loads of questions.

I spoke to two nurses.

They were amazing.

And obviously I've worked with so many grief counsellors.

They played it.

Obviously Mandy had to be the support that the grief, you know, how you would do in

the family to be the informer to the other members of the family.

I was like, no disrespect.

Kind of know what to do here.

You know, kind of been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.

And not in a cocky way at all, but it was a way of like going,

I kind of know how you pass the message through, you know?

And sometimes with grief and I did speak to our bosses about this and they

incorporated it, which was wonderful.

When someone's going through the worst part of grief, obviously Chas didn't die,

but like when news, people try and busy themselves around you.

All of a sudden you've got like 60 bottles, you know, 60 bowls of soup being

delivered as if that's all you need.

And it's actually, you don't just everyone just back off.

So of course they wrote in that Lydia, who is the mumsy one, the fact that

Lydia's come around with, you know, vats and vats of soup thinking that that's

the way to make it better in hope of going away.

Got it, got it.

Although I would say that bringing food is always a great way to, to help out someone

who's either grieving or going through breast cancer in any way.

And look at me in true Dingle style with a snotty tissue.

I'll put that down there just for anybody.

Always a Dingle.

So soaps like Emmerdale are obviously meant for entertainment, but they do cover

serious storylines and these storylines have, can have a massive impact on,

on our lives.

What do you think is the role of the soap in terms of educating, helping,

informing, entertaining people with, with serious issues like breast cancer?

I think it's the two words you just said.

Then I think, I think it's informing and it's entertaining.

Because we're not, we're not ramming statistics down people's throat.

And, you know, some people might feel reluctant to read a pamphlet, for example.

I know I'm that sort of person.

I'd be like, okay.

Whereas they don't actually know they're being taught all the lessons, all the

information and how you will be feeling.

Because actually you go, I love Ches and Mandy.

I love that relationship.

And yet they're just, they're going and they're checking themselves because

they're just watching Chas and Mandy and they don't know body language why they're

just doing it.

Now that's really clever.

That's, that's kind of the, we're manipulating the audience, but we're not

for, for the good.

The brilliance we had it with, with Marlon's storyline when we did the

stroke story.

And of course, as we know, men don't talk.

Men find it so difficult and the amount of lives we've now saved through Marlon's

storyline.

And then Paddy with the suicide, suicide, you know, Mandy was the,

the strap line was everyone needs a Mandy, you know?

And I think that again, it's, it's wonderful.

And, and so many people like from Mandy's man club that come out and said,

Oh, everyone needs a Mandy because it's how you speak to them, how you look after

them.

And that's what soaps do.

And it's wonderful.

I think it's because they, they genuinely feel like we're their friends that we live

on their street.

You know, they'll joke like when, when we see people, when they get

recognized or I'll be on a train and they'll say, we wouldn't like to live in

Emmerdale.

You know, there's, there's all this going on.

Actually you would because we're telling you what goes on in real life.

And Emmerdale is absolutely brilliant at getting it right.

Getting it right.

And the real narrative.

And especially when we do these big medical storylines, you know, with the

breast cancer, with the stroke, with suicide.

I'm so proud of the show for that.

And I guess that's because the producers and the writers always work with

organizations and charities like breast cancer now.

So they want to get the storyline right and accurate.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The only thing that I will say and what they have, what people do need to know is

I play Mandy Dingle as a character who is Chas's confidant and support.

I'm Lisa Riley, lost my Mum to breast cancer.

I'm not a medical advisor.

So on social media people, therefore I get absolutely saturated with questions and

people saying to me, hi Lisa, I'm Beth from Rochdale.

I found a lump.

I don't know what to do.

So I can give all your information for Breast Cancer Now.

Hoping to God that she will pick the phone up and speak to your advisors or find her

own clinician and try and, but I don't know that.

And that's the point where it's very difficult and my guilty head takes over

and work a brilliant, like they'll go, right.

And now after every episode, they now put out, if this is happening to you,

please go to ITV website and there's all the helplines because I don't know the

medical.

I don't know what I should be saying and I'm frightened of getting it wrong.

So hopefully they'll kind of, it's not me being an ostrich, I just don't know what

to say.

And that's when it's really hard.

Have you ever had anyone coming to you and saying because of the show, because of

that storyline, I found a lump and got it checked?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's isn't that wonderful.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

We're saving lives in that and we don't know.

It's like when we did the infertile story for Mandy, when we did my infertile

storyline and obviously a woman having a hysterectomy so young and going into

relationships.

And I had Laura, the most beautiful email came through to me and it was a girl who

was 24 years old and she'd had to have a hysterectomy at 21.

And she said she was never going to get a partner.

And thank you for portraying the truth of that storyline that forever.

And then she was then wrote back to me, she said she's found love.

And I was like, I was like a guardian angel.

I mean, that's incredible because I didn't know even doing the storyline,

girls were that young having to have hysterectomies and how that must be,

you know.

So yeah, there's times when we're very proud when we get it right.

Yeah.

We know that when Angelina Jolie many years ago decided to have her preventative

double mastectomy because she had tested positive for the BRCA gene, that caused a

surge in public, you know, because she was so famous.

So many people went for testing and it was really, really helped to raize awareness

in many ways.

But there's a very fine line, I guess, between helping to raize that awareness

and sharing such a personal storyline with the world.

Yeah.

Where do you draw your boundaries between Lisa Riley, who you share with the world

on Instagram and, you know, on your socials and Lisa Riley, who just needs to

be private and grieve your mum and, you know, just give yourself a little bit

of time.

Yeah, I think it comes down to me being, I'd like to think I was fully authentic

and you've met me now and I think I probably I am what you think you are.

I really am.

There are people in my industry that do turn the radio on when I call that when

they go to work.

You know, I am going to go on Instagram and I'm going to put a picture of me

bleaching my top lip because we all go through that and I don't want a dark top

lip, right?

I want it to be OK.

So again, that's being your authentic self.

And also when it comes to grief and loss and truth about diagnosis, I have to tell

the truth.

Not only because I'm playing, you know, Mandy Dingle, but because I want to be

that person.

I want to be true to me.

I won't be able to sleep at night, but I have to then also go, I have to go

home and be with Al where I am just, I'm Lisa in my jam jams, you know,

and it's hard for him as well.

It's hard for my family because as much as it's really flattering wherever we go,

it does, you know, it filters through to the family and my other, you know,

my other half.

And he's amazing how, you know, he copes with it.

And I'm very, very lucky.

But, yes, there are times when I'm just no makeup at all, hair in a scrabby knot.

Yeah.

And I can have that.

I'm allowed that.

So let's talk about your work with breast cancer now, which you've mentioned

already, but you became an ambassador in 2017, I think, and you support the annual

wear it pink campaign, which you are also supporting if anyone is watching the

podcast, you're wearing a beautiful pink top today.

So tell us about your work with breast cancer now and what you do with the

charity.

When they invited me to be ambassador, it was unbelievable because I think,

when you think of wear it pink and that kind of confidence in me, it kind of

speaks volumes, doesn't it?

And here I am wearing pink if you're watching.

Yeah, it's that you're allowed to raize money and I want to raize as much money as

we can for, you know, for to basically find out as much information as we can

moving forward in the medical side of things.

And that's research.

We know that, but that doesn't come cheap.

And with government funding, we need to raize as much money and awareness as we

possibly can.

And I do have a platform, you know, women like Lisa Riley.

You can't get away from that women and men, of course, but women do like me.

And I think that's because I'm a very honest person.

And because I've spoken so openly about my mum when I was on Loose Women,

that again has a huge female audience and Mandy Dingle.

So I think all sandwiched together, it was inevitable that I was going to be a

sort of flagship for the for the for the charity.

And it was great because now we're doing it at Emmerdale.

We were able to all wear it pink at work.

And I think wearing pink is such a great idea, you know, for that that one day.

And some people do it like I've heard that people do it like once a month.

And it's good for social morale at work, you know, and camaraderie as it should be

where it's like, yeah, be silly, let's be, you know, but if you want to

wear if you want to wear a pink top and a pink wig, you got to put five pound in the

pot.

Brilliant.

Everyone's raising money.

So I think, yeah, it was it was who I am kind of went hand in hand.

And this year, more than ever, which was amazing that people might not

know this, but I'm going to share it with you now.

So wear it pink day fell on 2024.

We talk about 2024 just now.

Obviously, Bell Dingle, my niece in the storyline, we've done a coercion

storyline, which again has affected so many women.

We've had like one of the biggest responses to any of our storyline.

It was a full year and by complete fluke, the sort of the end of the storyline that

everyone hated, Tom and they were so on Bell's side.

And it was the court week.

We were filming in the courtroom up north and it fell that wear it pink day was one

of the court days.

Now, the storyline was all kind of doom, doom and gloom and what happened.

And so I rang up our production coordinator.

I said, look, this is probably going to be a no, but I was wondering, could we dress

the makeup truck as pink?

Can we dress the wardrobe truck on location in pink?

And can we all wear pink to work?

Now, normally that'd be like a no.

They were like, absolutely.

And like all the makeup girls, everyone, all the costume, everyone was in

pink that day.

You know, we came to work.

The makeup truck was full of balloons.

If people saw my social media, everything was pink.

And it really gave this brilliant sort of camaraderie on set that day.

Everyone at Emmerdale was involved, you know, and to raize money as well.

It's even better because obviously there's people at my place that, you know,

have had mastectomies, you know, they're going through chemo themselves and

radiotherapy.

So it was there as well for us to come and lean on one another, which I thought was

amazing.

And wear it pink is such, it's a great idea.

It's a fun idea for people.

And I'm so proud to be an ambassador for Breast Cancer Now, because it's not all

right.

I'm going to be honest.

I've told you I want to stay.

I'm going to say it and I don't care.

I'm going to say it.

But there are quite a few people in the public eye that kind of just put the name

to stuff.

And it's like, that does make me a bit, you have to choose charity or charities

that are linked to how you feel as a person.

You know, I'm, you know, I'm not going to go and work for the dog trust because I

don't have a dog.

You know, it's who I am.

Yet people will do that.

I choose Breast Cancer Now because I know exactly what family members are going

through, what people are going through who've had treatment.

I've lived it.

I lived it for all those years of my life.

You know, I held my Mum in my arms when she took her last breath.

I know what the truth of this is.

And I'm not going to lie to anyone.

I have no reason to need publicity.

It's just, I just want to spread awareness.

Of course.

And you do that so much better if you've got that personal connection because you

believe in it so strongly and you know how important it is to raize that money.

You mentioned a lot of the money that Breast Cancer Now raizes from wear it pink

and from the other campaigns is for research.

And a lot of people don't necessarily know that Breast Cancer Now does research,

but there's so much research going into treatments and not just treatments,

but ways to make treatments kinder so that people who were going through chemo in the

future might not feel so crap going through chemo.

And that's what that money does.

So, you know, if all you have to do is wear a pink top and donate a little bit of

money, then you know, it's so worth it, isn't it?

Well, you know, obviously you were at the Christie yourself.

Like what people don't know is those afternoons when people have had like

radiotherapy and they're so tired that that sofa didn't just miraculously get

there, did it not?

That sofa because where you're sat or you're holding your Mum's hand because

they're feeling so poorly is because of fundraising.

Charity, yeah.

It's because that's why that sofa is there.

And people might not know that.

They might just think, oh, just sat down.

And it's having that awareness of knowing where that comes from, as well as,

of course, all the research money.

You know, I remember me and mum were lucky to go to see the stem cell in Fulham and

my mum was flabbergasted, you know, and Cherie Blair was there and she met

Cherie Blair and all the work that Cherie Blair has done for breast cancer as well.

And it was incredible.

But again, it is that and I'm not saying, but it's like monkey see monkey do.

When you're living it and you are, you are it.

You understand you, you know, I love being sat here with you today because it's like

we have empathy with each other.

We know that and I think that's what's important and getting that out there for

people.

And how can people get involved?

How can people fundraize if they want to help?

Well, everyone always thinks October.

OK, October is breast cancer awareness month, but it's also it's every month of

the year.

You know, I'm wearing pink today, you know, and it's just, again,

putting it out there as well as the other months of the year.

But fundamentally, where it pink day is October and you can go to the website and

get all the pack and then sign up your office wherever you work with all your

girlfriends.

If you want to have a wear it pink afternoon, you know, on the Prosecco or

the No Secco, amazing.

Those are the days and you might know someone who's been through it and you

might want to be there for them and have a real good jolly afternoon or night.

It's great.

Yeah, and we're still a good six months away from October.

So please don't wait until then.

Please go on the show notes of this podcast and have a look at the other links

that we've got there for fundraising because there is, as you say, stuff you

can do every day and it might just be a little, little thing, you know,

a little donation or a little regular donation that doesn't, you know,

cost the price of a cup of coffee or whatever.

So it's little things like when and as well, like Evelyn, my niece is six years

old.

She knows everything about her nana, everything, you know, and for her to say,

let's do a bun sale with my class, you know, there's 24 kids in her class.

And if that's like one pound, that's 24 quid.

That's going somewhere.

In this current climate, that 24 quid is going to a pot that's needed.

And I think if we can do that with six year olds, we're on the right track.

Don't you agree?

Absolutely.

Yeah, every little helps.

Of course.

Why is it important to you to work with this charity?

I think it's really important because fundamentally I want to help, but I would

be a liar if I wasn't sat here today to say, do you know what, Monday I might need

you.

I might need you myself.

So I need to know that I've got that comfort blanket should I need it.

But people know me and know that, you know, and I'll say it again,

God gave me wide shoulders for a reason, because I like to be there for other

people and I'm loyal.

I would never tell anybody, you know, I'm sat here with you now and there's four

dear people in my life that have had problems with cancer that no one will

know.

And I know, and I'll take that to the grave, you know.

Is there also an element of wanting to continue your mum's legacy and do

something where, you know, she unfortunately is no longer with us,

but you are carrying on the work and, you know, helping other people with breast

cancer.

Yeah, I always say, yeah, mum's not here to sing her song anymore and so I've got

to keep singing for my mum and I will do that forever and ever as much as I can

because it's important.

I know she would want it and I'm not being all like, you know, spiritual guru about

this.

This is the truth, but I do believe she is my guiding light.

I do believe she's with me, you know, and I have proof of that and people go,

oh, it's nonsense, you know, it's all mumbo jumbo.

It's not my mumbo jumbo, you know, when I smell a certain perfume,

when I see yellow, you know, things like that, it's just a little sign that she's

with me and I need that.

Yeah, amazing.

I'd like to finish with the question we're asking everyone on this podcast.

So this is something you alluded to earlier.

Breast Cancer Now's vision is that by 2050, everyone diagnosed with breast

cancer will not only live but be supported to live well.

What does it mean to you to live well?

To live well is to be positive, always.

Yeah, and there are going to be days when you feel like poo.

Can we say that?

It is true.

Yeah, there are, you know, in every walk of life, but fundamentally, if you go into

every morning thinking it's a good day, we're very lucky, it's going to filter

through everybody else, you know, and of course, the days that you're

allowed to feel poo, that's completely normal, but of the month, if you can have

a smile rather than a hmm, and yeah, don't get on the moaning bus, as I always

say, it's a good way to be, and that's how I will always be.

Yeah, always.

I can't be anything other than that.

Well, it has shined through today in this interview, Lisa.

You've been absolutely amazing, and I'm sure you'll have helped loads of

people as well, so thank you so much for everything you do, and thank you so much

for being on this podcast with us.

Thank you so much.

You're a joy, a joy.

Thank you, Lisa.

Thank you.

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