Fletch and Essie reach a milestone in their cancer treatment tonight as they discover their fate, as Holby City's Alex Walkinshaw reveals…
After agreeing to support each other in their battle against The Big C in Holby City, Adrian ‘Fletch’ Fletcher and Essie Di Lucca have grown united in their fight. And, tonight, in scenes playing out over a three-week period, we learn what their respective futures hold.
Fletch (Alex Walkinshaw) hopes that, following two surgeries, his prostate cancer ordeal is over. Essie (Kaye Wragg), meanwhile, is on the first day of a new treatment for pancreatic cancer and tells Fletch she’s feeling herself again as they gather in the cancer suite to support Jasper, a teen patient with bowel cancer.
"With people of all ages in the cancer suite, all suffering from the same thing, it’s where unlikely relationships are formed," says Alex. "There's a bond between everyone that nobody else will understand."
Jasper urges Essie and Fletch to ‘play the cancer card’ more as he uses his condition to blag ‘free stuff’. Fletch joins in the fun at first but then, convinced he’s awaiting bad news, gets angry with Jasper for being so blasé when he’s worried about dying and leaving his kids without a dad!
MORE: Holby's Kaye Wragg: My family's been struck by cancer many times
"Fletch and Jasper are on different parts of the journey," says Alex. "It shows how some people are fine with it while others are learning to process it."
Later, Fletch asks Essie how she's doing on her new treatment but she reckons Jasper needs his concern more as she reveals he’s about to undergo major surgery.
Fletch gets to dish out some good news in Holby City...
Jasper admits to Fletch that all his bravado is to remind himself life gets better. In reality, he too is petrified of dying. Fortunately, Jasper’s surgery is a success and Fletch delights in telling the boy his cancer hasn’t spread.
Later, with Fletch awaiting his latest test results and Essie keen to know if her treatment has worked, will they too be given good news?
Find out as Holby City continues Tuesdays at 8pm on BBC1.
