Emmerdale announces emotional baby story for Billy and Dawn
Evan receives a diagnosis later this spring.
Emmerdale has announced that Billy and Dawn Fletcher’s baby son Evan will be diagnosed with leukaemia.
The couple receive the emotional news later this spring, marking the beginning of a big story for the residents of Home Farm.
Dawn gave birth to Evan – her first child with Billy – just before Christmas. Upcoming episodes will explore how Evan’s diagnosis affects their family, including Will Taylor and Kim Tate.
Speaking to Digital Spy and other media at an Emmerdale press event, show producer Laura Shaw explained: “We’ve got a big story coming up for Billy and Dawn.
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“We’ve seen these two go through a whole heap of challenges in their relationship. They’ve finally got married, they survived Meena, Dawn got pregnant, they had baby Evan and it’s been fairly rosy for these two over the past few months.
“We’re going to see their world totally rocked when, almost out of nowhere, Evan is diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).
“ALL is one of the most common childhood leukaemias. I think there’s 650 children and young adults diagnosed with that every year in the UK.”
Shaw continued: “What we really wanted to show with this story is what a stress and strain a long-term illness like this can put on a family.
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“What we’ll see is how the roles of Dawn and Billy are changed almost overnight and out of nowhere. We’ll see how Lucas and Clemmie are affected and the stress that it puts on those sibling dynamics.
“We’ll see how this affects Billy and Dawn’s relationship, the wider family in Kim and Will, and all of their friends.
“There’s also the financial pressure that looking after a child long-term like that can put on a whole family. That’s going to be a big story for us going forward.”
Emmerdale fans will see the storyline begin in the coming weeks.
Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV1, and streams on ITVX.
