Stand Up To Cancer: Ex Oldham Corrie star opens up

Karen Henthorn, who played Teresa Bryant in Corrie between 2007 and 2010, was diagnosed with skin cancer in 2011 which she subsequently beat but lost her dad to the disease 29 years previously when she was just 19.

Now, the 60-year-old from Saddleworth is supporting Stand Up To Cancer, a joint fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4, in memory of her dad Peter Henthorn.

Karen Henthorn (Image: Cancer Research UK)

Karen, who has had a string of high-profile TV roles including Eastenders, Doctors and Shameless, said: “I remember there was a knock at the door one day and it was the police, they’d found my dad living on the streets of Manchester, I had no idea, I usually saw him every two weeks since my parents separated.

“They’d brought him to our house because they thought he’d had a stroke. He’d lost his short-term memory and could only recall the address of the old family home before my parents were divorced. So, my mum put him up for the night and then she found him a care home to go in.

“He’d only been in there a short time when he was transferred to hospital, and I used to go and visit him.

“Then one day I got home and we’d had a call to say his condition had deteriorated further and we should go up there. When we arrived, they told me he had died.”

She continued: “That was the first time I knew he had cancer, in his liver and lungs, and the first time anyone told me he was an alcoholic.

“And that was it, there was no support. It was different back then, so that was it. It would be lovely if he was up there looking down on me now, but who knows.”

Peter was only 44 when he died in Oldham Hospital, 1982.

Twelve years ago, during Karen’s own cancer diagnosis, she raised concerns at the doctors after she spotted a mark on her chest.

The actress had visited the doctors on numerous occasions about the spot, but it wasn’t until she insisted on being referred to a skin specialist that she was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma - a non-melanoma skin cancer which usually develops in the outermost layer of skin.

She has since had two further cancerous lumps removed, one from her chest and another from her right arm.

Karen Henthorn (Image: Cancer Research UK)

Karen said: “My first one was during my time on Corrie and it’d been there a while, but my GP didn’t seem concerned. When I eventually got to see a skin specialist they said straight away, yes, it’s cancer.

“So, I had that removed then I got another when I was doing War Horse a few years later, and I remember having that one removed and going on stage that night.

“Then there was a third and I was seen pretty much straight away. They are keeping a close eye on me because they have said it will keep coming back.”

Now Karen, who recently stared alongside Sheridan Smith in Channel Five drama The Teacher, is sharing her story to help rally people to stand together against the disease by raising money to help make the next cancer breakthrough happen.

Karen is now calling on residents to flex their muscles by getting sponsored to do 100 squats every day in November.

Participants can adapt the challenge to suit their fitness level and complete their squats anytime, anywhere – all at once or throughout the day. By the end of the 30 days, they will have clocked-up a total of 3,000 squats to help power life-saving research.

Roughly 44,100 people are diagnosed with cancer every year in the North West.

Stand Up To Cancer helps to take breakthroughs from the lab and accelerate them into new treatments that could make a real difference to people with cancer in the region and across the UK.

Karen, who also teaches screen acting for Manchester Actors’ Platform, added: “I support Stand Up To Cancer because you are donating, fundraising, or volunteering to literally save lives. It’s as simple as that.”

Since its launch in 2012, the campaign has raised more than £93 million, funding 64 clinical trials and research projects involving more than 13,000 cancer patients.

The Stand Up To Cancer campaign will continue throughout October with a collection of special programming airing on Channel 4 later in the month and culminating in a night of live television on Friday, November 3.