Corrie stalwart Sally Dynevor has an uncanny amount in common with her Weatherfield character – starting with sharing the same name.
Like Weatherfield’s Sally Metcalfe, she was diagnosed with breast cancer 15 years ago – so she was going through the experience both on and off screen.
And like the interfering knicker factory supervisor, who she will have played for four decades next year, she is devoted to her real-life husband, writer and actor Tim Dynevor, 63.
Like Sally and her screen hubby, another Tim (Metcalfe) – who are considering fostering on the soap – in real life the Dynevors are keen to enjoy new experiences and take on exciting challenges.
Not least because they are both cancer survivors – after Tim, 63, was diagnosed in 2023 and, thankfully, like Sally, made a full recovery.
READ MORE: Emmerdale star loses 4 stone as lifestyle change reverses major health issue
Sue Jenkins as Gloria Todd, Julie Goodyear as Bet Gilroy, and Sally when she first joined Corrie in 1986 (Image: Granada Television)
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Determined to make the most of every moment, earlier this year, they enjoyed a dream holiday – from their ‘bucket list’ wish list – to Japan.
“Going through something like that makes you want to embrace life all the more,”
Sally tells The Mirror. ”We’d love to do more travelling. We’re trying really hard to just do lots of lovely things while we can.
“You just don’t know what’s round the corner, do you? That’s why we’ve decided we should do a couple of our bucket list things.
“We all put stuff off and think ‘it’s too expensive, I’m not going to do that.’ But we’re in our 60s now and this is the time to be doing these things.”
As Sally, whose storylines over the years have included fights, affairs and even a stint in prison after being wrongly convicted of fraud, fulfils her dreams off-screen, she admits that she is getting fewer of the dramatic Corrie stories these days.
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Sally with her actress daughter Phoebe who starred in Bridgerton(Image: sallydynevor/Instagram)
She says: “Obviously, I’m not getting the stories that I used to get, but when I do get a story, I really look forward to doing it and really enjoy it.”
But, despite reaching her 60s, she remains an important character and when she is not working, her sense of adventure has increased with age. An avid breast cancer fundraiser, she is planning a daunting week-long trek climbing Mount Kilimanjaro – the highest mountain in Africa – in September, alongside her 28 year-old son Sam, a PR, in aid of Prevent Breast Cancer.
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“I am quite nervous about it,” Sally admits. “We’re camping in the middle of nowhere and it’s very cold when you get up to the top.
“But I’m determined and I’m definitely going to do my very best to get to the summit. I know people struggle with altitude sickness, but we’ve got a great guide and I think it’ s important to push yourself out of your comfort zone. Life is exciting when you challenge yourself. It’s a big wide world out there.”
Corrie’s Sally Dynevor reunites with on-screen daughters and other real life daughter Hattie (Image: Instagram)
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On her last major climb to Everest base camp for the charity, in 2019 – a challenge that raised £100,000 – at 5,364 metres Sally was taken ill, with altitude sickness. “It was tough and I was six years younger then,” she says. “We walked up to the top of Mount Kawakita during the night, so we could see Everest in the morning. Walking back down I was delirious.
“I didn’t know where I was, I couldn’t breathe properly and every step felt like walking on the moon. I could hear people around me saying: ‘get her back down,’ ‘don’t let her go to sleep.’ And all I wanted to do was sleep.”
Altitude sickness, which happens when people quickly climb to a place higher than 2,500 metres above sea level, causes symptoms including sickness, exhaustion, confusion, dizziness, sleepiness and shortage of breath and can be life-threatening.
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But Sally – devoted to fundraising for Prevent Breast Cancer – is undeterred, saying: “It’s the only charity in Europe committed solely to predicting and preventing breast cancer.
Sally with husband Tim in Japan (Image: INSTAGRAM / Sally Dynevor)
“We’re currently building a training hospital at the Nightingale Centre where we train radiographers for screenings and mammograms, so they can go and work around the country because there’s a shortage.
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“We need to be preventing these diseases, not living with the consequences when they’ve happened.”
Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009, ironically at the same time that her Corrie character had the disease, Sally had a lumpectomy and six months of chemotherapy before making a full recovery.
But she says it was also very difficult for her family. She says: “That’s one of the worst things – the impact on families. It affects everyone in your circle.”
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Discussing both herself and Tim getting the all-clear after cancer, she adds: “You walk out and you just feel so grateful.
“While it’s been awful, we look at in a positive way and think ‘we’ve both been through it now, that’s our blip.’ Hopefully now we’ll live long and happy lives, with nothing more happening to us.”
Coronation Street actress Sally Dynevor stands with her husband, Tim, after receiving her MBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) at an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle on February 2, 2022(Image: Getty Images)
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Also parents to Phoebe, 30, and Hattie, 21, who are both actors, Phoebe won a BAFTA Rising Star nomination last year, starred in the first two series of the period drama Bridgerton and is currently filming alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Ashley Walters in the upcoming film Remain, while Hattie starred in Waterloo Road.
Meanwhile, Sally is looking forward to celebrating 40 years on the Cobbles in 2026 – and she has dropped big hints at her screen daughters making a comeback. She says: “It’s a very different show now to the show I started in; it’s a much bigger cast, but I still love it and I still get excited.”
Still in touch with her Corrie daughters Helen Flanagan (Rosie) who left the show in 2018, and Brooke Vincent (Sophie) who departed the following year, she says: “I’ve always wanted them to come back, so I’d be thrilled.
“It would be great if they came back at Christmas, even if it’s just for Christmas Day – just to have them around the table again would be wonderful. So, I’m hoping that might happen, you never know.”
Currently involved in a fostering storyline with Tim, while she is enjoying the plot, there is no danger of her following suit in real life
She laughs: “I looked after my niece’s two little boys recently. They’re seven and four and Tim and I were exhausted.
“They were so much fun, but we’d both forgotten how tiring young children are. We lay on the sofa shattered after they left!”
