Caroline Aherne is battling with lung cancer.
The ‘Royle Family’ star, who played chain-smoking Denise Royle in the hit comedy, has been quietly recovering from treatment for the disease after previously fighting off both bladder and eye cancer.
Caroline, 50, has decided to go public with her secret illness in order to help raise £3.4 million to improve care for cancer patients in Manchester, where she was treated.
The actress-and-writer and her brother, Patrick, were both born with retinal cancer, leaving her near-blind in one eye. She later struggled with bladder cancer.
Caroline said: "I’ve had cancer and my brother’s had cancer and we know how it affects people.
"We’re lucky in Manchester to have some of the best bits of cancer care — and the last thing I want to do is knock the fantastic work that goes on in this city.
"It’s brilliant that all these big institutions want to make cancer care better for Manchester people, but even the best doctors, nurses and managers on earth aren’t going to be able to understand what needs improving unless people affected by cancer in Manchester get involved and tell them what needs to change."
The ‘Mrs Merton’ star has now backed the Macmillan Cancer Improvement Partnership, which will seek to bring together doctors, hospitals, patients and the council to improve cancer care in Manchester.
She added: "There are too many stories about bad communication leading to patients waiting too long and feeling ignored and abandoned and that same bad communication is contributing to poor statistics on cancer.
"The partnership needs people like us to start explaining to all the institutions what needs changing so that these big, complex organisations can get together to make the improvements."
Caroline Aherne battles lung cancer
