Kelle Bryan rejected Hollyoaks offer in 2016 due to stroke

Kelle Bryan was forced to reject a role on ‘Hollyoaks’ two years ago.
The Eternal singer has signed up to play Simone Loveday’s (Jacqueline Boatswain) sister Martine Deveraux on the Channel 4 soap next month, and she nearly joined the cast in 2016 but had to turn down an offer from the show’s bosses after suffering a stroke in 2016.
She said: "Two years ago I auditioned for ‘Hollyoaks’ and was offered the role but I was too poorly to take it.
"I can’t tell you, it was like the worst best thing that’s ever happened to you. The best thing was I got the offer, the worst thing was I had to turn it down.
"It was awful. I just thought, ‘Well that’s it now, that ship has sailed’."
The 43-year-old star was "really happy" to be given another chance to appear on the soap, but is "nervous" about the role.
She added to The Sun Online: "You just never get a second chance like this. You think once it’s gone it’s gone. So I was really happy but nervous as hell but just happy to have the opportunity."
Last year, Kelle opened up about suffering from a stroke, which occurred due to complications from the auto immune condition lupus, after which she had to learn to read, write and talk again.
She signed up to star in ‘Wings’, a play about a stroke sufferer in which the cast all have experience of the life-threatening condition, and after she "really struggled" to recognise words she found the script aided her recovery.
Speaking in October 2017, she said: "This is my first job since the stroke. Which is amazing. It was so meant to be. Its karma. It’s so special for me because it was hard to get the confidence for a casting room, I was so nervous. I had a tick, and I just didn’t want to be in-front of people. This sort of job is unheard of.
"My stroke happened last April. I went into hospital for a fairly minor operation, but because I have lupus, I caught a major infection and ended up in intensive care and then had a stroke.
"Recognition of words was something I really struggled with. I had to learn to read and write again. Words appeared jumbled up – I didn’t recognise them as words. But the script is also occasionally written with sentences all jumbled up and I would auto correct them, because I was going through speech therapy training."