Former Casualty star Amanda Mealing noticed a lump in her breast while she was pregnant but had dismissed it, only to receive the devastating diagnosis the day after her second son was born in 2002

Actress Amanda Mealing was diagnosed with breast cancer just a day after her second son was born.

The Casualty star, who is best known for playing consultant Connie Beauchamp, revealed the shocking news that happened when she was pregnant with her son Otis, who is now 19.

Amanda admitted she’d found a lump in her breast while she was pregnant with Otis in 2002. She was already a mother to Milo, then aged three, with her husband Richard Sainsbury.

She said: “During the pregnancy I had, what we are all told to look out for, a feeling of something like a frozen pea.

“But because I was pregnant, quite often ducts get blocked, I just thought, ‘It’s fine’.”

She said she feared that she wouldn’t be taken seriously, continuing that she thought, “People will think I’m being a hysterical pregnant woman, so I didn’t bother talking to anyone, and that must have been when I was about six months pregnant,” she added.

Amanda first appeared as Connie Beauchamp in Holby City in 2004 (Image: BBC)

Amanda’s latest role is behind the cameras as a director on ITV’s Coronation Street (Image: Ken McKay/ITV/REX)

Amanda noticed that the lump had grown to a “knotted mass” about half the size of her fist. So once Otis had been delivered, she asked her father-in-law, who was a retired doctor, to examine her.

But she hadn’t realised how serious her condition was. Tests were done immediately and Amanda received her devastating diagnosis.

She added that she didn’t think the breast cancer would be curable, and she wouldn’t live to see her children grow up. This left her feeling “overwhelmed”, as she underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Amanda, now 54, was eventually given the all-clear but then suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and her weight dropped to just six stone (38 kilos). She now campaigns for breast cancer awareness.

The actress bid farewell to her Casualty character in March this year, after spending more than a decade in the long-running Saturday night BBC1 drama and its spin-off show Holby City. She originally shot to fame in Holby, playing the Clinical Lead of Cardiothoracic Surgery in Darwin, and Joint Director of Surgery from 2004 to 2010. She moved to Casualty in 2013 as a consultant in emergency medicine. The actress is now taking an extended break from the show, but the hospital doors are still open for her to return.

Amanda was desperate to see her sons Otis and Milo grow up (pictured in 2015 with her husband Richard Sainsbury) (Image: Brett Cove/PP/Capital Pictures)

Amanda’s latest challenge is behind the camera, working as a director for ITV’s Coronation Street. She recently joked that she’d had a distinguished visitor, when the Queen visited the Manchester set in July this year to mark the hit soap’s 60th anniversary.

She posted on Twitter, “Well, not often HM herself pops in to my work! Ha!”