A Coronation Street favourite has become an honorary patron of the Lancaster theatre where her acting career began.
Cherylee Houston, who plays Izzy Armstrong in the popular soap, joins BAFTA award-winning actress Sarah Lancashire as a new honorary patron of the Dukes.
Cherylee started as she means to go on by visiting The Dukes recently to celebrate the success of the latest show by the Shattering Images theatre company of actors with learning needs.
She hopes to return soon to work with Shattering Images and be an ambassador for the theatre as a whole.
“I always wanted to be an actor and was desperate to be part of a theatre so as soon as I was old enough to get on a train by myself, I started coming to The Dukes,” said Cherylee who lived in Morecambe at the time.
“The Dukes really leads the way and its youth groups are not only for people who may want an acting career but are also important in giving them confidence.”
Cherylee attended The Dukes youth theatre—then known as The Bottleshop—during her teenage years and one of her most memorable experiences was performing with them in Poland.
Cherylee, a former Morecambe High School pupil, has had an illness which affects the joints, since she was 11, and has been in a wheelchair for 15 years.
She is the first disabled actor to have a permanent role in Coronation Street where she has worked for five years.