The actor, who plays Moira Dingle on the soap, shared that she discovered a lump in her breast last year – though thankfully it turned out to be a false alarm.

“It was pretty scary as I found a lump in my right breast,” she recalled to The Mirror. “I went to see the doctor who told me they were more worried about one on my left breast.

“I asked what they meant as I couldn’t feel anything. It was higher up. I went into overdrive and I had to go for a mammogram.

“Thankfully, it was a cyst and it was benign. Something like that does change your perspective though and I try to be as healthy and fit as I can be now.”

Moira is currently going through her own health crisis, with Natalie’s character suffering a seizure earlier this week.

The actor explained that when she learned about the storyline, she wanted to play her “part in helping to raise awareness”.

“A soap can play such a big role in shining a light on many different illnesses, as it has so brilliantly this year with Chas’ cancer diagnosis,” she noted.

“As a soap actress, you are very much in the lap of the gods when it comes to your character and what happens to them.

“But I think it is important we do cover serious illnesses that hopefully will help people know they aren’t alone. I know I would be petrified if I started to have seizures and had no idea why.”

Natalie admitted that it has been “a challenging role and a big responsibility”, revealing that she has since learned a lot about different types of seizures and has been working with an expert to portray the condition as accurately as possible.

“He has been giving me lots of wonderful advice on how to show little visual signs, even subtle things when you do have a seizure,” she said.

“It’s been important to me to show how much it affects a person. It takes everything out of your body and the confusion afterwards is very hard. My heart goes out to people who have gone or who are going through this.”