Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall) suffered life-changing injuries on Coronation Street when he was the victim of a hit and run. He broke two vertebrae in the incident and needed emergency surgery to deal with a blood clot that was pressing on his spine.

On waking up, he realised that he didn’t have much feeling in his legs, and was told that his recovery would be very slow.

Now home, Tyrone is getting used to life in a wheelchair. While his family all promised to help, in practice the work of helping Tyrone with everyday tasks has fallen to his wife Fiz Dobbs (Jennie McAlpine).

‘I think Tyrone obviously knows that a lot of the pressure will fall on Fiz – the kids, work, the house. He’s aware of that, and I don’t think he wants to add his stress onto her shoulders,’ Alan Halsall said.

Fiz has a lot on her plate. As well as helping Tyrone cope with his drastic change in circumstances she’s now the main breadwinner trying to keep up with her job at the factory. Meanwhile daughters Hope (Isabella Flanagan) and Ruby (Billie Naylor) have been adding to the stress.

Hope has been bullied online, receiving numerous vile messages, and eventually Tyrone comes to realise that the person who’s targeting Hope could actually be her own sister.

Tensions in the house escalate as Ruby and Hope are at loggerheads, and Tyrone tries in vain to keep the peace. Fiz’s stress levels get to breaking point as she complains that she has to do everything.

She heads off to work, and when she’s there she’s suddenly overcome by all the tension she’s been feeling and takes it out on her defenceless sewing machine, viciously whacking it. Izzy Armstrong (Cherylee Houston), Kirk Sutherland (Andy Whyment) and Michael Bailey (Ryan Russell) can only look on, not knowing how to support her or help.

Tyrone is shocked to hear about this when Michael accidentally mentions the incident to him, and it’s not long before he decides to go back to work, doing paperwork in the office.

But with Kevin (Michael le Vell) in an apathetic mood as he’s dealing with his own divorce worries, Tyrone gets no support from his boss as he heads to work – which doesn’t sound like an ideal scenario for reducing Fiz’ stress levels.

Alan Halsall and Jennie McAlpine recently met with Manchester Arena bomb survivor Martin Hibbert and his wife Gabby to discuss their real life experience of spinal injury and how it affects the friends and family of the person.