I'm happy I can Spread the love

CORRIE star Channique SterlingBrown is captivated as she meets young African women and tries shelling nuts and feeding the livestock in their remote village

- BY SUE CRAWFORD

Known to fans of the ITV soap as lawyer Dee-Dee Bailey, the actor visited a rural community in Malawi, where more than 70% of the population live below the national poverty line on less than £1.60 a day.

Channique made the 5,000-mile trip to support the international development charity Tearfund in its work to eradicate period poverty.

The term refers to the inability to afford or access menstrual products, as well as a lack of education and support around periods and menstrual health - a subject this paper is campaigning to stamp out in the UK through our End Period campaign.

Poverty Channique, 28, says: "I'm very grateful for my job at Coronation Street, but it's a strange thing having a platform when it's come out of nowhere. Suddenly you get a role on TV and it changes your life.

"I'm not a perfect person - I'm just a girl from Manchester - but I think it's my responsibility to use this profile I've got through Coronation Street to help and care for others.

"I feel grateful to be able to do that.

These people might be on the other side of the world, but it's about spreading the love." Big-hearted lawyer Dee-Dee arrived on the cobbles in 2022 as part of the Bailey clan - the soap's first Black family.

Like her character, Channique is a committed Christian and an ambassador for Tearfund, which partners with churches in 50 of the world's poorest countries.

Life-Changing