Paul recently told his family about his diagnosis (Picture: ITV)

Coronation Street’s Jane Hazlegrove has opened up about the personal impact she has to the soap’s motor neurone disease storyline after dealing with loss herself.

The actress plays Bernie Winter in Corrie, who’s son has MND.

Paul (Peter Ash) developed concerning symptoms after a crash involving Carla (Alison King). After multiple tests on his hand, a doctor confirmed that he was showing signs of the illness.

Initially, Paul failed to tell his family about the MND and distracted his mind by taking on dodgy and dangerous jobs for Damon (Ciaran Griffiths).

In the end, it was Gemma’s (Dolly-Rose Campbell) wedding where Paul told her and Bernie about his illness as he broke down in tears.

Because there isn’t a cure for MND right now, this also marks Peter Ash’s exit from the show, as Paul will die at the end of this storyline.

It’s an incredibly emotional time for everyone involved and especially for Jane Hazlegrove, who knows how tough grief is to deal with.

‘I was very upset [when I found out about the storyline] as I adore Peter Ash [who plays Paul Foreman] so I was gutted as this meant he would be going’, she told Inside Soap.

‘I lost my dad recently, so I know what this kind of grief is like. It has been very emotional.

Jane plays Bernie, Paul’s mum (Picture: ITV)

‘My Corrie family are a tight unit. I’m so lucky to work with them all’.

Jane’s co-star, Daniel Brocklebank, also has a personal connection to this story.

He plays Billy Mayhew, who will help take care of his partner as his condition deteriorates.

‘It’s almost been 21 years since my grandfather died so we’ve sort of put a lot of that to bed in some respects, but I think it is it is dredging up’, Daniel told us recently, discussing how this storyline has impacted his family so far.

‘I have to say that there was a scene we filmed a couple of weeks ago. And obviously Paul’s physical debilitation is very visible. And it very much reminded me – we’re telling the whole family what’s going on – and I very much remember that in our family and, and in the scene, Paul gets up and walks out the room and I remember my grandfather doing the same thing.

Daniel has also spoken about the impact of this story (Picture: ITV)

‘And all of us just sat together, not being able to really comprehend what we were going to have to face as a family. And when Paul gets up and left the room, I just burst into tears.

‘I mean, it worked in the scene for, Billy, thank God, so there are definitely going to be points where it’s triggering and I think when I did the thing on BBC Breakfast a couple of weeks ago I spoke to my mum afterwards and she was like, “this is gonna be hard to watch”, Not just watch, because it’s Corrie but watching you and Peter go through what we’ve already been through.’

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Paul was recently diagnosed with MND.