Hollyoaks star Jennifer Metcalfe reacts to devastating Mercedes scenes

 "It was really draining but really rewarding."

Hollyoaks star Jennifer Metcalfe has opened up about the latest emotional cancer scenes involving her character Mercedes McQueen.

After the show’s time jump, it was revealed that Mercedes had been diagnosed with bowel cancer over the previous year.

She has already undergone surgery and chemotherapy, but a secondary tumour was found on her liver that the doctors are attempting to treat.

In today’s episode, Mercedes was told the devastating news that the chemo hadn’t worked, and without a specialist drug which was difficult to source, she had at most a year to live.

The episode ended with a powerful scene that involved Mercedes looking at herself in the mirror in a vulnerable state: in her underwear, without her wig and with her stoma bag on show.

She then listened to a CD that was put together by her loved ones and danced through her tears as she came to terms with this terrifying news.

She said: "It felt beautiful, awful, draining, amazing, special, exciting, sad, upsetting… every single emotion that you could feel.

"[In the scene], I go from looking at myself in the mirror and taking it in, getting emotional about it, then I look at my children and I get some strength. So I play this CD, and then all my friends are telling me some nice words that make me laugh.

"Then this incredible music plays, and I dance freely. I was like, 'Wow, how am I going to do this?'"

Jennifer has a personal connection to Mercedes’ cancer storyline and was able to channel this emotion into the harrowing scene.

My dad died when I was 15 of bowel cancer," she said, "so there was real, raw trauma there for me that I’ve probably never dealt with. I had to dig a little bit deep into personal experiences."

While Jennifer didn’t feel able to watch the scene back herself, she hopes that it will help others who are living with cancer.

She said: "I just trusted that whatever was going to happen when I got [in the room], would happen. I didn’t know I had this in me until that day. I went into a totally different zone. It was really draining, but really rewarding.

"It could be the worst thing television’s ever seen or the best, I don’t know. But I hope what I felt came across. Apparently [the scene] is good, and hopefully it raises the awareness that we want it to."