Paul Foreman (Peter Ash) has a chat with his new friend in upcoming Coronation Street episodes as he prepares for his future while his MND progresses.
In a recent episode of the ITV soap, Paul decided to attend a motor neurone disease support group meeting. However, when he arrived, he met a lady called Shelley and the sight of her wheelchair overwhelmed Paul, prompting him to run out and leave.
Things begin to get a little easier between Paul and Shelley in tonight’s (July 24) instalment, as Paul finds himself sitting next to Shelley while waiting for his appointment at the MND clinic.
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Paul is impressed by her positive attitude as Shelly urges Paul to take control, saying that if there’s something he wants to do, he needs to do it now.
Back at home, Paul tells Billy (Daniel Brocklebank) how Shelley’s helped him to see things more clearly and he has something important to ask him.
After Billy excitedly tells Summer (Harriet Bibby) that he’s expecting a marriage proposal, it appears the vicar has the wrong end of the stick, as Paul then steals himself before telling Billy that when the time comes, he’d like him to help him end his life.
But how will Billy react?
And was a proposal on Paul’s mind at all?
‘Billy feels a huge amount of pressure because obviously Billy being Archdeacon slash he is used to doing the pastoral care role, but this is different because it’s his partner’, Daniel told us.
‘So he’s trying to apply his normal sort of way of dealing with things to this situation, but it’s impossible for him to do that, because he’s in love with Paul. He’s under a huge amount of pressure to be there. But also, he has got to try to be there for himself, which is one of the reasons why he tries to convince Paul to go to these MND meetings.
‘He’s had one parishioner with MND so he knows the condition in that he knows what’s going to happen to Paul. But he thinks if Paul is able to reach out to other people with MND, it will take a bit of pressure off of Billy.’