Sammy Dobson’s career nearly ended when she was involved in a horror accident that left her face looking ‘like mincemeat’ – but now the ex-Byker Grove star is able to use that experience in her new role on Casualty

Casualty’s newest doctor can take plenty of inspiration from her own life for her dramatic new storyline.

Dr Nicole Piper, played by Sammy T Dobson, becomes a surrogate mum for her friend, Rosie, who is paralysed after the pair were in a car crash. Viewers of the BAFTA-winning soap learn more about Nicole’s back story on Saturday – but it’s one Sammy knows all too well.

In May 2010, she was involved in a horrific smash of her own which ripped off one eyelid, broke her thigh bone in two, left her face “looking like mincemeat”, put her in a wheelchair for three months and left her fearing it was the end of her career.

Now 37, she says: “Life is so utterly unpredictable. I have come full circle! It felt so bizarre that I had lost my career because of a car accident and then I was being brought in as a character who’d had one. When they initially told me, ‘you’ve been in a car crash’, my instant reaction was, ‘how did you know?’ But they were talking about my character, Nicole, rather than me!”

After starring as a teenager in Byker Grove, Sammy was in the Lake District taking a break from filming the BBC’s Women in Love when an oncoming car turned her life on its head.

“I just saw headlights right in front of me,” she recalls. “I tried to swerve to get out of his way, but he swerved the same way, so he hit my car at well over 50mph and it flipped over into an adjacent field.”

“My face went through the window as I tried to slam my foot on the brake, which meant my right leg was extended and as it was on the point of impact, my thigh bone snapped in two. Thankfully, the other driver called emergency services. It took them an hour and a half to cut me out.”

Sammy’s car collided while going at 50mph (Image: COLLECT)
Rushed to Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle, Sammy, from Newcastle, had a metal plate inserted in her femur and surgery on her face. “When my mum saw my eye under the bandages before the surgery, she nearly collapsed,” says Sammy. “She thought my eye had gone and she said it looked like mince.”

Released from hospital after two weeks, she then discovered she had also broken her back. She adds: “This meant more recovery time. I then had crutches for another year and had to learn to walk again unaided.”

Sammy was on crutches for more than a year after the smash (Image: COLLECT)

But Sammy says the greatest toll was taken by her career. She says: “I’d been filming in South Africa on Women in Love when it happened. My career was starting to look really promising and even my agent had told me it was ‘my time’ as the phone started to ring regularly. Women in Love was a big project for me and everything was looking brilliant.”

“When the accident happened, I was devastated. I wasn’t that bothered about the physical stuff, as I knew I would get better eventually. And I was never particularly vain either, so I didn’t mind that I had been scarred. The biggest thing that affected me was losing my career. I had worked so hard and it was gone.”

Sammy’s character Nicole was also in a car accident that paralysed her friend Rosie (Image: BBC STUDIOS)
It took 18 months before she plucked up the courage to audition. “I was badly scarred and I was still needing treatment,” she says. “The script would say things like ‘she runs away’ and I’d think ‘nope’. It was two and a half years when I got a bit part. I got a few – mostly playing prostitutes or abused partners because I had scars.”

Despite having to start again from scratch, Sammy was determined to try and get back on her feet. She began doing stand-up comedy, then performed in pantomimes and appeared in a few TV comedies before landing the part of Nicole.

“It came out of nowhere,” she adds. “I was so happy. Even the commute from my home in Northumberland to the studios in Cardiff didn’t matter. The irony is that when my friends saw pictures after my crash, they used to say, ‘you look like you could be in Casualty’. What an incredible surprise to be able to say now I am in Casualty!”

The Casualty team accept their BAFTA. From left to right, Neet Mohan, Kirsty Mitchell, Elinor Lawless and Michael Stevenson (Image: Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty I)
As viewers will soon learn, there are more eerie echoes of real life in the storyline. Sammy explains: “My character was driving and she has carried the guilt all her life. She really loves Rosie and they have been friends since their teens. Rosie desperately wants a child and so that’s why Nicole has offered to be the surrogate mum for her.”

Sammy also offered to be a surrogate for a close pal after she had a heart transplant. She says: “Eventually, everyone involved decided it wasn’t the best decision. But I always wanted her to have that as an option. It’s something people don’t talk about a lot, but you have romantic relationships and love and there are platonic relationships and love. I absolutely love my closest friends and I would do anything for them.”

After all the hurdles she has jumped since her accident, Sammy says being in Casualty is a dream come true. “Everyone has been so welcoming,” she adds. “It’s a great place to work.”

Life away from work is going well for Sammy, too, who is engaged to graphic designer Graeme, 38. She says: “I was supposed to move to London before the crash, but obviously didn’t and I met him locally. I really do think everything happens for a reason.”