Coronation Street star Sue Cleaver reveals sepsis battle nearly killed her

13 September 2019, 12:28 | Updated: 29 October 2019, 12:32

The soap actress revealed the heartbreaking news on today's This Morning.

Sue Cleaver has opened up about her battle with sepsis on ITV's This Morning today, and how the life-threatening disease nearly killed her.

The 56-year-old actress, famed for playing Eileen Grimshaw on Coronation Street revealed to Eamonn Holmes, Ruth Langford and Dr Ranj about the struggle she's endured over the past few months.

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After being diagnosed in July with the infection, Sue told the presenters how she started to feel really ill whilst on set for the popular ITV soap.

She admitted that at first, "I didn't really take it seriously" and that "I suffer like many people with IBS and I thought I’m having a flair up of IBS".

The actress went home ill from work, and returned the next day but her condition continued to worsen.

Sue explained: "I went back shooting and it was the hottest day of the year and I was on set with a hot water bottle, shaking, and Melanie Hill turned to me and said, “Look at your feet”.

"And my feet were just blue and purple and all the goosebumps on my arms.

"I was in pain and freezing cold, so I went home after lunch, got into bed.

"I had socks on, leggings, dressing gown, thinking of not only have I got IBS, I’ve caught the flu now."

It took Sue's husband ringing their daughter-in-law, who's a paramedic, for her to actually go to the hospital, where she was instantly diagnosed with Sepsis.

She continued to explain: "I didn’t know I had sepsis until the next day in the ward.

"I think it was purely from the kidney infection which was very severe.

"The biggest lesson for me is we stride on through life, we’ve got commitments and we just put up and get on with things, and that is a big mistake."