Paul Foreman (Peter Ash) initially struggled in the aftermath of his motor neurone disease diagnosis in Coronation Street but now, as he accepts that he will die sooner than expected, it appears he wants to take complete control of when his final moments happen.

This week, Paul will attend a support group meeting for MND.

He will meet a lady called Shelley, who is in a wheelchair. While Paul is pleasant and kind, the sight of Shelley’s wheelchair and the brief look into his future scares him, so he ends up leaving the group.

As a new week begins, Paul waits for his appointment at the MND clinic and bumps into Shelley again. They get talking and Paul is impressed by her positive attitude. Eventually, Shelley urges Paul to take control and says that if there’s something he wants to do, he needs to do it now.

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Returning home, Paul tells Billy (Daniel Brocklebank) how Shelley’s helped him see things more clearly and has something important to ask him.

While time passes, Billy chats to Summer (Harriet Bibby) and it becomes apparent that he believes Paul might propose.

Sadly though, Billy gets the wrong idea, as Paul sits him down and tells his partner that when the time comes, he’d like him to help him end his life.

But how will Billy react?

‘He is absolutely horrified’, Dan Brocklebank told us.

‘Because it not only goes against his own personal moral stance, but also his role as an Archdeacon is very much about celebrating the life they’ve got left rather than terminating it; he wants them to have more time together, not less. So he’s absolutely horrified that Paul is even considering it.

‘Billy is very fixated on the fact that Paul isn’t christened and now he wants to end his life so he is worried that he may not go to heaven and they won’t see each other in the afterlife. It throws up other issues because Paul quite rightly says, look, you’re already focusing on the end.

‘And Billy’s not ready to face that yet. Billy is already focusing on the fact that what’s going to happen after he’s gone, whereas Paul says, I don’t want to think about that bit yet.’

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