Revealing the first picture of his Corrie character, detective Kit Green, with a shaved head ahead of chemo, actor Jacob Roberts admits: “I didn’t know men could get breast cancer.” Volunteering to shave his head and lose weight while Kit goes through gruelling treatment, Jacob also spoke to men who’d been through breast cancer at support groups, to make his performance more authentic.
Kit discovers he has stage three breast cancer after his estranged aunt Celeste [Frances Barber] dies, alerting the family to the possibility they may carry a familial BRCA gene mutation – making people more likely to develop certain cancers.
In an episode to be screened next month, Kit lets his son Brody [Ryan Mulvey] give him a buzz cut ahead of chemotherapy. Jacob, 36, says “They [Corrie bosses] never told me I should do it, but I felt that the storyline needed it. To watch something like that on screen just makes the storyline better and a bit more believable.
“People who go through this often lose their hair and they don’t have a choice. I just feel it’s good for me to show the reality and embrace the storyline. Obviously I was a bit anxious at first – I didn’t know what I’d look like with a shaved head and how other people would react.
“Once I did it, I was fine with it and there was a lot of respect from people at work. My Mum said, ‘whoa, you look a bit scary Jacob!’ But she knows how committed I am. I’m trying to lose a bit of weight, too, to show the effects of the chemotherapy.
“People who go through this often lose their hair and they don’t have a choice. I do have a choice, so I just feel it’s good for me to show the reality and embrace the storyline.
“It’s an important storyline and it’s my opportunity to show another side of Kit. I want to give it everything I’ve got. I’ve been wearing a hat outside of work to keep it secret and I’ve kept myself to myself, because I want it to be a shock on screen.”
Jacob’s hair was actually shaved by Coronation Street’s hair and make-up team. He says: “Brody finishes it off a tiny bit – maybe they didn’t trust Ryan to do it!”
Coronation Street scriptwriters have been guided by Breast Cancer Now and Macmillan to make the storyline accurate and Jacob has attended online support groups for men with breast cancer, including The Men’s VMU (virtual meet-up).
He says: “It was important. I needed to speak to guys about this and get an insight into how they felt. I wasn’t sure I would be welcome in these meetings, but the guys were really cool about it and made me comfortable.”
At one meeting he met former printer Mike Rossiter, 66. A keen runner, Mike, who lives in Cardiff with his wife Tina, found a lump while training for a marathon in 2013.
His cancer was stage one, but he carried the BRCA2 gene mutation. He says: “One of the things you notice as a man going into a breast cancer unit is that everything is pink – the leaflets, the walls, the posters. It’s as far away from masculinity as you can get.
“A lot of men are put off by that, so we had conversations with Jacob about it. He took lots of notes and said he had found it really helpful. He stayed for 90 minutes and said he wanted to come back afterwards and tell us how the storyline developed.”
Mike, who has three adult sons, says of carrying BRCA2: “That was the worst part for me. You want the best for your kids. It really hit me to think that I could pass that gene on to them and I had to have counselling.”
He was supported by Breast Cancer Now and The Men’s VMU (virtual meet-up), an online support group for men with breast cancer, adding: “Men don’t usually like sharing, so it made me feel less alone. I was thrilled when I heard about the Coronation Street storyline. Millions of people will watch this and if it just saves one life, it would be absolutely fantastic.”
Jacob, who grew up in Salford and has wanted to act since seeing an Indiana Jones live action show at Universal Studios in Florida during a family holiday, aged 8, is delighted to have landed the Corrie storyline. He says: “I think Corrie has been wanting to do a male breast cancer storyline for a while, so I was happy that they chose me for it, because I’ve arrested pretty much half of the street now and you want to be able to do something a bit more personal.
“It sounds really ignorant, but I didn’t know men could get breast cancer. I just had no idea, especially with someone Kit’s age. Now, I just want to increase awareness.T here needs to be less stigma around the subject. Blokes generally keep their health concerns to themselves.”
For Jacob, who started acting classes aged 11 and worked alongside Peter Kay after landing a small part in the sitcom Phoenix Nights, being an actor has not been plain sailing. At 17 he appeared in New York in the stage show, Borstal Boy, but returning to the UK, he took a job as a joiner for three years.
After a brief period working with children with disabilities, he then spent four years as a building site labourer. When he landed the role of Bernie Winter’s long-lost son Kit in Corrie, he was fitting TV aerials for a living.
He says: “It has been a long road to being successful and to being noticed. But doing jobs like fitting TV aerials is real life. That’s where you observe people and take bits from them for your acting. I’ll always remember my roots and if I wasn’t working, I’d go back to it 100% ,it doesn’t faze me.”
As for Kit, he e says: “At the end of the day, Kit could die. frankly. I know it [the storyline] runs at least until early next year – I’ve just received the Christmas scripts – it’s a long story.”
For Jacob, who is dating Coronation Street PR manager Caitlin Connolly, and lives in Manchester, life is split between work, friends and family and his Romanian rescue dog Bugsy. He says: “Bugsy’s as good as gold and he goes out twice a day, but he never stops running. I got him before joining Corrie. He’s a responsibility for me.”
Away from work he enjoys gaming, watching films and socialising with his friends from the cast, including Mikey North (Gary Windass) and Ryan Prescott (Ryan Connor).
He says: “I’ll have a few pints with them after work and me and Caitlin go out to the Lake District and places like that with Bugsy and go on big old walks. I’m an outdoorsy person.”
Since Kit first appeared on the cobbles in 2024, he’s become a hit with Corrie fans. But the ruthless detective with the chequered love life is not so popular with Jacob’s dad, Roy. “My mum appreciates him, but my dad calls him a s***!”
*Breast Cancer Now, the UK’s leading breast cancer charity, has a free confidential helpline where anyone with concerns can speak to expert nurses on 0808 800 6000 or visit https://forum.breastcancernow.org/
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
