With Kym Marsh

Corrie’s Kym Marsh lived through every parent’s nightmare when her son fell ill with a life-threatening heart condition.

In June last year, 19-year-old David had chest pains and was struggling to breathe, so she took him straight to hospital in Greater Manchester where doctors feared he was having a heart attack.

“I thought he was going to die, it was terrifying. He was terribly scared. A part of you can’t believe this is happening to your boy, a fit young man,” says the actress, who’s played barmaid Michelle Connor in the soap since 2006.

“As his mum, any crying or getting upset had to be done away from his room where he couldn’t see it. All I could do was try to be positive and strong for him.”

Her agony was heightened by the fact that she lost a baby son, Archie Jay, minutes after his birth in 2009, and had also seen her father suffer a heart attack when she was a teenager.

Although David has recovered – doctors diagnosed him with myopericarditis, an inflammation of the heart – he has been told his condition could return any time.

Marsh, 38, is now fronting the British Heart Foundation’s Dechox campaign urging people to quit chocolate in March to raise money for lifesaving heart research.

“It’s been a real struggle for my David going through this. At one stage, he was quite depressed, and he’s often said, ‘Why has this happened to me?’ “Thankfully, after further medical checks to make sure he didn't have an underlying heart condition, he’s just been given the all-clear and he’s started to get his life back now, at work, driving again and going to the gym.”

 Kym Marsh is supporting the British Heart Foundation Dechox campaign. Sign up up at bhf.org.uk/dechox.