Actress Cherylee Houston has spoken about the precautions she has had to take since the start of the coronavirus pandemic which has meant she has only left home for hospital appointments in the past 16 months.
The 46-year-old Coronation Street star has a rare connective tissue disorder called Ehlers-Danlos, which makes her vulnerable to the effects of Covid-19, and has led to her shielding at home since March 2020.
The popular soap star, who plays Izzy Armstrong on the cobbles, has also been hampered by suffering “recent complications” which has meant that she is in a “different category” to most people.
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Cherylee, who uses a wheelchair, appeared on Tuesday’s episode of This Morning, and told viewers: ‘I’m in a slightly different category to Izzy, I’m slightly more vulnerable than she is.
“I’ve been shielding this whole time and I’ve had recent complications, which have put me into a different category.
“But what that meant was we had to be extremely careful at home.”
Cherylee added: “What was fantastic at Corrie was they went, ‘How can we tell that story?’ because it’s happened to so many other disabled people over this time.
‘”I haven’t been anywhere other than a hospital for 16 months now.”
Cherylee has returned to the ITV soap in recent weeks, filming her scenes from home, with her real-life partner Toby Hadoke being added to the cast to play her neighbour.
Such are the precautions that Cherylee has had to take during the pandemic, she said that they have had to sanitise any food that comes into the house and also their dog when he come back from a walk.
She said: “We sanitise everything that comes into the house.
“For quite a long time Bernard the dog was getting sprayed after his dog walks.”
Toby then added: “That’s been my life, sitting in the porch spraying blueberries just to make sure that everything that comes in is sanitised.”
Cherylee said that since March, her shielding has become harder due to help being scaled down.
She said: “When shielding finished in March, people stopped getting help. But it didn’t mean we didn’t need it.
“Mental health as well that’s been impacted with people who weren’t even in the vulnerable category, because of the isolation.
“I think that’s why it’s so important to cover this on Coronation Street, last year 59 per cent of the people who died were disabled – it seems like we’ve been forgotten about in this pandemic.’
“At the height of things there was a DNR [do not resuscitate] notice on disabled people, so the fear of you being that choice and not being seen as equal human beings is quite prominent.
“Corrie have looked after me as their actor, but also used the story to show how difficult this is for disabled people.”
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