Former Coronation Street star, Tracy Shaw has been keeping fans up to date as she bravely battles breast cancer, but her latest update hasn’t been what anybody hoped for.
The actress, held in high regard by long-time Corrie viewers as Maxine Peacock, revealed her diagnosis to the world earlier this year, and, in the following months has kept her social media followers updated while undergoing treatment.
Fans have flooded her Instagram page with supportive comments as she’s been incredibly open about the raw and painful process.
After previously promising her followers to update them following the results of an upcoming ultrasound scan, Tracy followed through, and tearfully revealed that the results weren’t what she’d been hoping for.
Tracy uploaded a clip to Instagram with the caption: ‘Ultrasound day. After hearing the news, went to TK max to buy more hats, followed with a huge M&S food shop to cheer me up.
‘Thankyou to you all for your lovely messages. Sending all my love.’
‘Good morning everyone,’ she began the clip.
‘So as I told you all, I had my ultrasound today to find out if the lesions had shrunk.
‘I also needed to check a lump that I’d found on the other breast, which was on the right breast. The good news is that the lumps, well, there’s actually quite a lot, are cysts, so that’s good news
And the lesions on my left breast, well, my expectations were that it was -judging by what personally I’ve gone through and what the chemo does – I thought they’d shrunk, but basically they’ve gone from being circular to oval, but not really shrunk in size.
‘I don’t know what I was expecting. I don’t know, maybe a few more rounds will be all it takes. But I know they can’t operate until they shrink it.
‘So I thought they’d give you a live update this time. I was just expecting, I was just expecting some miraculous miracle. But maybe it’s to come. Maybe it’s to come.
‘All my love to you all.’
The following day, Tracy uploaded a further update, in which she was feeling much more positive, captioning it: ‘Thank you! Full of gratitude today. Thank you for your wonderful messages, love and support.
Today is a new day, full of hope. Love to everyone.’
‘Thank you so much for your truly inspiring, encouraging messages,’ she began the clip.
‘There was one lady who sent me a message [saying] sometimes the shape of it is still there because they are dead cancer cells. I like that, I’m hanging on to that one!
‘So today I woke up 4am, because I do go to bed early, and I sat and waited and watched the most beautiful sunrise.
‘And I realised the gifts and the gratitude that I have, that although the whole of this journeys distance is pretty excruciating most of the time, there’s some major plus signs to how my life has changed,
‘In that I when I woke up today before the light – and generally my body just falls asleep when it’s going dark – and I get to see and sit in stillness and see part of the world that I wouldn’t normally experience and for that I’m really truly grateful.
‘I also wouldn’t have met you amazing women who have gone through way more than I was crying about yesterday.
‘So thank you. Thank you for shining the light and giving me the courage to get up today and to keep moving forward. And I am really grateful. Thank you.’
