Coronation Street legend Beverley Callard broke down in tears as she disclosed a troubling development in her ongoing cancer battle. The actress, 69, who portrayed Liz McDonald on the ITV soap on and off for three decades, revealed earlier this year that she had been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer and underwent her first round of surgery just over a month ago.

Beverley has been candid and transparent with her social media followers since her health struggles began, and had been informed that it would take approximately four weeks to receive her results from the initial operation, which would determine whether she is cancer-free. However, the I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! star was dealt a blow just before the Easter long weekend, taking to Instagram tonight to tearfully explain that her results had still not arrived.

She heartbreakingly confessed she could no longer keep up the pretence that all was well, as she made her way to a photoshoot to promote her new role on Irish soap Fair City.

She said: "Well, I had to do a photoshoot yesterday, and on the way there, it was for a magazine about Fair City, and on the way there, Jon [my husband] was driving, and I was in the passenger seat. My phone rang, and it said the caller ID. Usually, it's the hospital or one of the consultants from the hospital, and I thought, 'Okay, this is it, my results.' It was one of the amazing cancer care nurses from Norfolk and Norwich Hospital; they are fantastic.

"She wanted to know how I was doing. I told her that I've got quite a lot of soreness, which I've not had for ages, but it came on a few days ago. She said I could be overdoing things, hopefully I'm not. I've had a lazy day today. But then she said, 'No results yet because there is a backlog,' so hopefully I will get them next week.

"You know when your heart is in your mouth? You think, 'This is it. It's coming now, any minute,' and then, no, nothing. Obviously, we were still moving in the car, and I just thought, 'I can't do this now, I cannot paint a smile on my face again.'"

Beverley, who has been married to Jon McEwan since 2010, managed to get through the photoshoot before opening up about how she couldn't face her battles alone, and expressed her heartfelt sympathies to anyone who has found themselves in a similar position.

She added: "Anyway, I did it. You just do, don't you? Then we went out for some dinner and it was really nice. The other thing I was thinking was that Jon's painting the bedroom in our new home and doing all that so it will be lovely for me for radiotherapy, etc, if I am tired, and I just thought 'Oh, I could not go through this by myself.'

"I really feel anyone who is going through it by themselves, I really do. If you are, you're much stronger than me and I'm sending you so much love."