Scare was a wake- up call for me

Published on Tuesday 3 September 2002 01:00

This time last year Claire Goose was coping with a breast cancer scare and a split from her long-term boyfriend. Now, she tells Liam Rudden, she’s ready for anything that life throws at her

ACTRESS Claire Goose seemed to have it all - a part in a top television drama series, cover-girl

looks and a love affair with her equally good-looking Casualty co-star.

But when Edinburgh-born Claire discovered a lump on her breast last year, time suddenly stood still.

Years of caring for fictional patients with life-threatening ailments as staff nurse Tina Seabrook in the hit BBC series Casualty couldn’t possibly prepare her for the shock she experienced when she had to face the very real spectre of cancer.

And, to compound her personal agony, the chilling discovery was made just after her painful split from her Casualty co-star Jonathan Kerrigan.

Viewers who tuned in last night to watch her as Dc Mel Silver in the first of a new series of top-rated crime drama Waking The Dead will have little idea that it was filmed just as Claire was hitting her lowest point.

"It was all very shocking because it came pretty much out of the blue, and at a weird time too," she recalls. "It was towards the end of shooting the last series of Waking The Dead, when we were all very tired and run down.

"It was the last straw, really. Nothing can prepare you for that moment when you are faced with the possibility of cancer, and everyone reacts in a different way.

"As soon as I knew I had a lump, I decided to get it sorted. Then I just got on with it. I had a biopsy on the Friday and the results came through the following Tuesday."

It would have been the longest weekend of her life, had it not been for the fact that, through it all, her filming schedule kept her busy. With just the Saturday off work, she spent it with her Waking The Dead co-star Sue Johnston, who had also been by her side on the trip to hospital for the biopsies.

"I suppose, in a way, it was quite good that I was busy," says Claire. "But just because I did it all in a very business-like fashion didn’t stop it being frightening."

When the all-clear came through, she couldn’t resist celebrating by posing for photographs in a revealing basque - one of many photoshoots she has provided for lads’ magazines.

"After confronting the possibility of losing a breast, I decided I’d live for the moment," she says. "A few days after the doctors had told me the lump was benign, I was contacted by a men’s magazine and thought: ‘Yeah, why not?’ I was just so pleased that I still had my breasts."

That extra exposure certainly did the 27-year-old no harm at all, and Claire promises that viewers will see her new approach to life reflected in her Waking The Dead character who, she claims, has become far more feisty.

"We are all really pleased with the way this series has come out. It’s moved on a lot since the last series and looks very different, a lot more American. What I’ve always liked about Mel is that she was obviously a bright spark who was fast-tracked as a detective, and in quite a senior position for her age, even though she’s still quite cautious and lippy. In this series, she’s becomes even more confrontational with Trevor’s character, who is her boss, and that makes for interesting viewing."

In fact, there are a lot of similarities between Claire and Mel. "I can relate to her determination," she says, admitting that until the age of 12 she was a bit of a tomboy herself. "I was always out on my bike and getting covered in dirt and all the rest of it. But by the time I went to grammar school I’d calmed down a lot," she laughs.

However, despite the growing popularity of Waking The Dead, it’s as staff nurse Seabrook in Holby General’s over-stretched accident and emergency that Claire is still fondly remembered, a part she may never have played had Martine McCutcheon not pipped her to the role of Tiffany in EastEnders.

"At the time, I felt that I’d come so close to getting a part on television, and then lost it, that it was never going to happen," she says. "But then another part of me knew that my bad luck had to break some time, at least I hoped it would.

"Obviously, in hindsight I’m thrilled at the way things turned out, because the way my career is going now has taken me to where I wanted to be. If I’d got EastEnders, it would have taken me down a totally different path. Casualty was just perfect for me."

Perfect not least because the medical world was one that Claire, the daughter of a GP, was already familiar with.

"I was actually born in Clerwood in Edinburgh," she reveals. "My dad had moved to Edinburgh to go to medical school, but then the job took him to King’s Lynn, the area both my parents were originally from, so I suppose it was natural for them to return there, and that’s where I spent most of my childhood."

Setting up practice in King’s Lynn, Claire’s dad, David, found himself looking after the Royal Family. But when asked if he treated the Queen, Claire diplomatically replies: "His practice meant he looked after them when they were at Sandringham, so he’s seen pretty much all of them."

Back in the world of flashing blue lights and cardiac arrests, meanwhile, Claire quickly settled in. "Initially, when I first started Casualty, I couldn’t bear to be away from work," she reveals. "I used to go in on my days off and everyone would say: ‘What are you doing here?’ It was great, I’d just arse around all day with everyone in the green room."

Her role in the hard-hitting drama was very different from the one that landed her an Equity card. And being reminded that she once spent a summer dressed as a storytelling racoon brings on a fit of laughter.

"That was when I was still at college," she confesses. "One of the quickest ways to get your Equity card was to do a summer season or a panto. I did a summer in a theme park because they offered an Equity-recognised contract. It was a good laugh."

Hard to imagine, maybe, but then with Claire Goose the unexpected is always just around the corner - as she discovered herself recently when she paid 850 for one of Kylie Minogue’s jumpers . . . only to have it stolen moments later.

"It was 750, actually," she corrects, having recovered from another fit of giggles, "and, yes, it was nicked. Heat magazine were holding a fundraiser for Cruisaid by auctioning off celebrity items. Kylie had donated this really nice top and I managed to win it. We were at the Grosvenor Hotel and there was a big party afterwards. I left the top at the table when I went for a dance and when I came back it was gone. But what makes it worse is that whoever has it probably doesn’t even realise what they’ve got. So yes, it was a distressing night for me."

Behind Claire’s bubbly exterior, though, is a more serious side. Recently she spent a week in Cambodia working with the Red Cross as part of a three-year pilot project to introduce the basic principles of hygiene to the population. "The aim is to educate them about how to build toilets, wash food before eating it, and convince them to keep water covered to stop mosquitoes getting at it," she explains. "They’re all basic, but lifesaving, changes that need to be made.

"You’d be amazed how many children used to die from diarrhoea because no-one knew how to treat it. Since this pilot scheme was introduced, they’ve practically eradicated that problem altogether because they now know that if they have diarrhoea they need to take a salt solution."

It was time well spent, she believes. And, looking to the future, she reveals: "My last year on Casualty was spent doing so many emotional and relationship-based storylines that when I went to Waking The Dead it was nice to play a character who was the complete opposite - only interested in the murders and the job. So possibly, after Waking The Dead, I’d like to go back to where I was on Casualty, something more emotional . . . But then there are so many things I’d really like to do."

l Waking The Dead is on BBC1 on Monday nights at 9pm.