Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter)’s breast cancer diagnosis in Emmerdale has obviously affected her whole family – they love her, after all. But the discovery that the cancer is related to her having the faulty BRCA2 gene has had a more direct impact.
It means that her immediate relatives – her brothers and her children – could also have the faulty gene and be at higher risk of breast cancer.
Eve (Bella James) is too young to be tested, but Chas urged her brother Cain (Jeff Hordley) and Caleb (William Ash) and her son Aaron (Danny Miller) to get themselves tested so they would know what they were dealing with. In upcoming episodes they get their results – and it’s mixed news.
For Cain and Caleb there’s relief all round when they open their results and discover they’ve tested negative. This also means that they don’t have to worry about having passed the gene to their children, so Nicky (Lewis Cope) is also in the clear, as well as Cain’s children.
It’s a different story for Aaron, however. He’s shocked to see that he’s tested positive for the gene.
‘More than anything, I don’t think he realises the seriousness of it straight away,’ Danny Miller told us. ‘I think it’s a case of him having to deal with it fairly quietly and privately.’
This leads Aaron to lie to Chas. She’s hugely relieved to hear that her brothers are in the clear and Aaron can’t bring himself to upset her by telling her the truth, so he tells her that he, too, tested negative.
‘He’s happy that everyone else is negative,’ Danny reflected. ‘Secretly he’s going along with it that he’s negative as well, when really he’s positive. I think it’s almost like a defence mechanism where he’s like, “I’m negative and if I see it like that, no-one needs to know.” That’s kind of where his head’s at.’
Danny said that at some point down the line Aaron might be able to open up, and there are only two people he would be able to talk to about it.
‘I know there’ll be some sort of conversation with Chas about it at some point. I think she really is the only person – Paddy (Dominic Brunt) as well, probably – that he would really open up to and let his guard down without feeling weak and vulnerable.’
But for now, he’s more comfortable hiding behind the lie. Is he doing the right thing?
