Coronation Street icon Sally Dynevor opens up about cancer battle and vows to never retire

Coronation Street star Sally Dynevor insists that she will never retire from playing iconic character Sally Metcalfe and says the ITV soap helped her process her cancer diagnosis

Coronation Street legend Sally Dynevor says getting back on the cobbles helped her process her real-life cancer diagnosis and is so grateful for the role she’s promised to never retire.

The 62-year-old actress was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009, mirroring a storyline her iconic character, Sally Metcalfe, was filming at the time.

After six months off-screen, during which she had undergone a lumpectomy and chemotherapy, Sally reprised her role in the ITV soap

She told Prima: “I wanted my life to get back to normality.

“I didn’t want to be thinking about going to the hospital.

“I just wanted to step back on those cobbles, which I have to say, the first day when I came back after having six months off…I felt incredibly emotional and so grateful that I’d not taken it for granted at all.

“But to go away and think, ‘Will I ever go back?’ and then to be doing what you enjoy doing, you’re just so grateful for having that opportunity again.”

In fact, Sally is so grateful to the soap that she insists she will never retire despite being in the role for over 40 years now.

The actress said: “When you love what you do, why would you want to retire?

“I come into work every day and I’m surrounded by wonderful young people who are showing me what’s going on in the world and the fashions, and they’re exciting and interesting.

“I love young people.

“So the idea of just packing it all in and sitting at home and going, ‘Right, what shall I do today?’ Just absolutely not.

“I don’t think I’m ever going to retire.

“I’ll stay here as long as they want me; if they don’t want me any more, I’ll still try to do something, because the idea of retirement just sounds awful to me!”

The soap legend added that Corrie has been “the perfect job”

“I never thought in a million years I would have been there for 40 years”, Sally admitted “I just thought it was going to be a year at the most, but I look back now and I think, ‘Gosh, four decades, that is a long time.’

“Not many people are in the same job for 40 years any more, let alone acting!”

The June 2026 issue of Prima is now on sale.

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