ITV Emmerdale Chas Dingle star Lucy Pargeter’s eight word response to soap exit

Emmerdale star Lucy Pargeter has responded to fears she’s exiting the ITV soap amid a new storyline.

Chas Dingle has been diagnosed with breast cancer and she has made the decision to have a double mastectomy. However, the diagnosis has left some fans fearful she might be bidding farewell to the soap for good just like what happened to her on-screen mum Faith Dingle, who bowed out from the ITV soap for good in a special Super Soap Week surrounding the Dingles.

Now Lucy has discussed her own future on the soap, insisting she never wants to leave Emmerdale and would have to be “dragged kicking and screaming” by bosses if they ever wanted her to depart the role.

“I don’t think I will ever make the decision to leave myself – they’ll have to write me out, but even they they’d have to drag me out kicking and screaming! I’ve got a job that I love and I’ll stay as long as they’ll have me,” she told MyWeekly magazine.

Lucy also opened up about tackling such a big storyline on the soap, admitting she ended up “welling up” over the scenes.

Speaking about how “daunting” the storyline is, she told us: “It is always daunting when someone trusts you with a storyline like this. I did feel a huge responsibility and all I hoped was that I could do it well. I have found myself welling up filming the scenes. The writers have done a tremendous amount of research on the subject which they have shared with me.”

Lucy is hopeful the soap can help raise awareness of breast cancer as Chas plans to undergo a double mastectomy.

“You would never ever want to wish this diagnosis on anybody. But this is a chance for us as a soap to help raise awareness about breast cancer and help people who are going through it. Chas is a very pragmatic and practical person and when she is told she is a carrier of an altered BRCA2 gene, she knows there is a risk of developing other breast cancers in the future,” she added.

“She thinks, ‘OK if there is a chance, then let’s take the option of a double mastectomy as a solution’. She wants to try and fix it and doesn’t think about what emotional after-effects she will feel. For Chas, getting rid of the problem is what she wants to focus on now.”

Support has flooded in for Lucy for portraying the storyline so sensitively, with the actress sharing: “Chas is a character who people have watched for years and it’s been nice to receive messages from people getting in touch on X (Twitter), who have said that when watching the storyline they felt the same as she did when they were diagnosed. It’s important that people don’t feel alone.”