Anne Kirkbride and William Roache as Ken and Deirdre in Coronation Stree. (Image: ITV)
legend Anne Kirkbride died 10 years ago today, aged 60, after a secret battle with . Following her diagnosis the previous autumn, the actress, who portrayed Deirdre Barlow for 42 years, saw her health drastically deteriorate and suffered a stroke shortly before her death.
Her co-star and “work sister” Beverley Callard happened to call Anne shortly after her stroke, and her husband, David Beckett, answered and confirmed that he was waiting for an ambulance.
The Liz McDonald actress and her husband, Jon McEwan, rushed to Salford Royal Hospital, where they met Anne and David as she was being taken into A&E.
Beverley said: “It was so shocking. I’d seen her on the Friday, just two days before and I knew things were serious but I wasn’t prepared for this change in her. She was conscious but not really speaking and was very, very ill.”
As she comforted Anne, she added to : “I was stroking her face and stroking her head and saying, ‘Don’t worry, darling. None of us are going anywhere, you’re going to be OK. We’re not going to leave you on your own. You will get through this’.”
:
Anne battled breast cancer before her death in 2015. (Image: Getty)
Beverley remembered the desperation in Anne’s eyes: “I held her left hand and she looked at me and squeezed it so hard. I knew she was scared. Really scared.”
Given the gravity of Anne’s condition, with the cancer having spread, medical staff promptly conducted tests to determine the severity of the stroke.
Beverley accompanied Anne into one of the scanning rooms, explaining: “She couldn’t speak very well but I could see she was panicking so I just kept saying, ‘It’s OK, I’m not going anywhere. I will talk to you the whole time through it. We will get through this. We can do it. You can do it’.”
Afterwards, Anne was taken to a room where David, Beverley, and Jon were waiting at her bedside. Doctors said that the actress had around 24 hours to live.
Don’t miss… [NEWS] [NEWS]
Beverley Callard met Anne at Granada Studios in the 1980s. (Image: Getty)
“She was in quite a lot of pain at that point but they gave her painkillers and were trying to make her comfortable,” shares Beverley, who first met Anne back in the early 1980s at Granada Studio’s canteen.
Beverley continued to comfort her friend, but says that “without a shadow of a doubt” Anne knew what was going to happen.
She recalled her final moments: “They managed to give Anne pain relief so she was calm. We took turns sitting with her, stroking her head and her hand. We kissed her and hugged her. We were talking to her all the time so she knew how loved she was, how much we cared about her and that we were all there with her.
“Without a shadow of a doubt though she knew what was happening. She wasn’t speaking but she was squeezing our hands so tightly that I know she was saying goodbye.”
Anne Kirkbride first appeared as Deirdre Barlow in 1972. (Image: Getty)
Bill Roache, who portrayed Deirdre’s on-screen husband Ken Barlow, also arrived to bid a touching final farewell along with Steve McDonald actor Simon Gregson.
Anne died at the age of 60 around 4.50pm on Monday, January 19. Beverley expresses the deep love present during Anne’s final moments: “I can honestly say she left this world from a room full of love. There were loads of us there, Absolutely loads of us and we all loved her.
“And then, when she’d gone, we cried and cried. Buckets and buckets of tears. I think we all felt the same we just couldn’t imagine a life without her in it…We will miss her forever.”