Paul Foreman faces devastating loss as his illness develops in Coronation Street
TIME is slowly running out for Paul Foreman as his motor neurone disease (MND) is slowly taking over.
Next week in Coronation Street, the builder played by Peter Ash loses one of his biggest abilities due to the illness. How will he cope?
The beloved character has been preparing to lose most of his physical abilities ever since he was devastatingly diagnosed with the condition last year.
To top it all off, and as regular ITV viewers will remember, Paul was also told he only had a handful of months to live.
In recent months, Paul has been progressively losing control of his limbs and he has been forced to the use of a wheelchair.
Determined to make his last moments count, Paul tied the knot with his partner Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank) with whom he has shared an on-off romance, despite his worsening symptoms.
But what will he do next week, when he slowly loses the ability to speak?
Coming up, Paul is slurring his words and when his new PA arrives, following Moses’ shock departure earlier this year, she is out of her depth.
The PA clearly struggles to understand him but Billy tries to play it down.
Unfortunately for him, Summer Spellman (Harriet Bibby) knows better and she tells him they have to face facts – Paul’s speech is deteriorating.
Billy explains to a shocked Summer that he is worried to talk about Paul’s deterioration with him as he is aware his husband previously made plans to take his own life when his health is on a considerable decline.
Tensions arise later on, when Paul finds out about Summer’s plans to delay her American course, he implores her not to give up her dreams because of him.
In later scenes at the Rovers karaoke evening, Paul reveals to a worried Billy that he has put them down to sing Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me.”
Can Paul pull it off?
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What will Billy and Summer do?
While this remains to be seen, viewers of the Manchester-based show know that Paul has planned to end his life on his own terms, as mentioned above.
The thought of facing his progressive deterioration encouraged Paul to turn to former addict Abi Webster (Sally Carman) and ask her to score him some drugs.
After initially refusing, Abi agreed to ask her ex-dealer Dean Turnbull (Anthony Crank) for morphine.
Billy eventually heard about Paul’s plan and the couple had an emotional conversation about the builder’s inner torment.
Although he’d first refused to take part in Paul’s suicide plan, Billy made the vow to end his suffering when needed.
The promise has been weighing heavy on Billy’s conscience – but will he ever really go through with it once the time comes?
Coronation Street airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8pm on ITV.