Emmerdale actress Olivia Bromley, who plays Dawn Fletcher, has revealed more about her upcoming storyline which sees baby Evan diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
Dawn and Billy Fletcher (played by Jay Kontzle), receive the news after a bruise is found on Evan and he’s taken to hospital.
“Basically, Evan has a fall and they take him to hospital and he gets brought home,” Olivia explained. “But then Billy and Dawn notice more bruises, which is unexpected. When they go back to hospital, initially their worry is that as a couple they deal with social services a lot. But actually it turns out Evan has leukaemia and bruising is one of the symptoms.”
Olivia teased that Evan’s diagnosis will affect the whole family going forward, but Billy and Dawn in particular.
“What’s quite draining to film is the relationship between Dawn and Billy, which is very strained,” explained Olivia. “They’ve always been a massive support for each other – but what has felt heavy is they are pulling apart and really going for each other. So that’s a difficult element.
“The last block has been really intense, there’s lots of hospital scenes, and we’re trying to put ourselves in that headspace for a long period of time. Also, we’re working with a real baby who we love and is amazing. But that’s impactful, seeing him in hospital – and I’m sure it is for his parents, too. It brings it home.”
When soap operas begin hard-hitting storylines, the actors tend to do their own research into the subject matter. For this, Jay and Olivia worked with a charity to ensure they are telling the story accurately. The pair met with parents of recently diagnosed children to understand the impact of leukaemia on the whole family.
“We worked with Leukaemia Care,” said Olivia. “We had this amazing conversation with parents whose children have been diagnosed recently. They were really open and generous with their own experience and the impact that it has had.”
“How this story plays out is that Billy and Dawn’s life is just going on, they have other things to deal with, and this comes as a curveball,” explained Olivia. “It impacts their relationship and their family life. So we spoke to parents and families about how that split-second diagnosis changes everything and you have to deal with it.”
“Everything does change,” agreed Jay. “And we have to respect that people are going through this. They’ll have ups and downs, and we’ll try to portray that as realistically as possible.”
Could this latest heartache be too much for Billy and Dawn to get through? And could it signal the end of their relationship?
