As fans of Corrie will know, Street legend Vera Duckworth passed away in her armchair in 2008, leaving poor old Jack Duckworth a widower who was never really quite the same after his V died…

Jack was of course played by Bill Tarmey, who also left the soap in 2010. Jack of course also died and was escorted by Vera to his heavenly reward.

But in an interview with the Daily Mirror recently, Liz Dawn, who played Vera from 1974 onwards, has revealed that she decided to leave Corrie because she was finding it almost impossible to “soldier on” having been diagnosed with lung disease COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and she feared she was dying.

Liz, who was a lifelong smoker until she kicked the habit in order to extend her life, explained, “My breathing was so bad I thought I was dying…

“I’d smoked for many years and I’d always had a bit of a cough and a splutter but I was getting worse and worse and I was struggling to breathe.

”I was frightened of letting people down when I was filming. I would cry sometimes because I was so stressed.”

Liz did indeed soldier on in the show though for a full five years after the diagnosis was made, but she knew that she would have to give up when the hectic schedule of filming proved just too much.

She said, “I couldn’t walk more than a few steps without having to sit down and I was so tired I couldn’t even learn my lines.”

Since she left the Street, Liz has worked with the British Lung Foundation to raise awareness of the dangers of smoking, and to encourage people with respiratory complaints to visit their GP.

She said, “I’d urge anyone to get checked over. As long as you get the right medication you can have a life.

”If I hadn’t got treatment then I’d have had to leave Corrie years before.”