Hollyoaks star Jennifer Metcalfe reveals the sad real-life connection to character Mercedes McQueen's bowel cancer storyline By Bethan Edwards For Mailonline Published: 20:38 EDT, 16 September 2024 | Updated: 20:49 EDT, 16 September 2024 e-mail View comments Jennifer Metcalfe has revealed the heartbreaking real-life connection she has to Hollyoaks character Mercedes McQueen's new bowel cancer storyline. The actress, who has played Mercedes in the Channel 4 soap since 2006, is taking on the new challenging storyline battling cancer as a new mum after the time jump. Jennifer has revealed it has been tough filming the emotional scenes as her dad Colin died when she was just 15 after suffering from the disease.
Speaking to The Sun , she said: 'My dad died of bowel cancer when I was 15 so I lived through it with him, which is why I wanted to do this storyline as well. 'You can get some people that go, "I can't do that because I went through that and I don't want to tap into that". I've never grieved for my dad.
That's like pure grief what we watched there. Pure therapy and the rest of it.' Jennifer Metcalfe has revealed the heartbreaking real-life connection she has to Hollyoaks character Mercedes McQueen's new bowel cancer storyline The actress, who has played Mercedes in the Channel 4 soap since 2006, is taking on the new challenging storyline battling cancer as a new mum after the time jump Jennifer said she wanted to be 'challenged' by the new storyline and has worked closely .