“It’s really important for us to show the reality of this illness.”

Emmerdale star Olivia Bromley has called for Dawn and Billy Fletcher to unite again following recent tensions at Home Farm.

Olivia’s character Dawn was left devastated earlier this year as her baby son Evan was diagnosed with leukaemia, marking the beginning of a big storyline.

Since Evan’s diagnosis, Dawn has been pushing Billy away and recently gave him a hard time for passing on germs to the youngster when he went out drinking. Evan’s family had been trying to maintain a strict social bubble to protect him.

Dawn and Billy also found themselves at odds when they both backed different parties in Kim and Rose’s recent Home Farm feud.

Olivia recently caught up with Digital Spy at Emmerdale’s official nominees photoshoot for the Inside Soap Awards 2024.

We filmed a behind-the-scenes video with the cast in Leeds as they posed for their pictures, which can be seen in the latest issue of Inside Soap. Our video can be watched in full at the top of this page.

Speaking about Dawn and Billy’s ongoing problems, Olivia told Digital Spy: “It’s just really sad, because obviously they’ve been thrown into this whirlwind of circumstance that nobody expected, with a very unwell child. Any relationship would be put under a huge amount of strain.

“But Dawn and Billy have been through so much and they’ve managed to get over a lot of challenges in the past, so hopefully they’ll be able to get through this one as well and come together as a team, because that’s what they really need.

“It’s easier said than done when you’ve got a very sick child, financial stress and the stress of dealing with the whole situation.”

Asked about Dawn taking her frustrations out on Billy, Olivia continued: “I think Dawn is very frazzled and she’s taking the main load of everything. She’s taking the load of looking after this sick child and Billy’s relying on her to do that.

“But she’s not always the best at how she deals with her emotions and how she deals with her stress. I think, in some ways, she hasn’t come towards Billy, she’s pushed him away.

“She’s a mother who cares so much and she’s just doing her best, but as we all know, Dawn doesn’t necessarily deal with things in the best way.”

Due to the realities of a leukaemia diagnosis and the long treatment period, Olivia confirmed that there’s still a difficult journey ahead for Evan and his family.

She told us: “I think it’s really important for us to show the reality of this illness – from diagnosis, how quickly people go into treatment but also how long that treatment can take.

“I’m really proud that we’re showing the story in a slow-moving way, as it is in life. Not everything happens in a perfect sequence. Dawn’s mother has been in, they’ve been dealing with this very sick child, there’s been a whole cocktail of emotions but that’s life, isn’t it?

“They’ve been thrown a huge amount of things to deal with, but I think it’s really, really important that we show the reality of the next few stages of this treatment and everything that real parents and families are going through.”

After their dramatic year, the Tate-Taylors of Home Farm have been nominated for the Best Family prize at the Inside Soap Awards.

Olivia said: “It’s lovely, it’s great to be nominated. Obviously the Tate-Taylors have had quite a lot of drama in Home Farm! But we are against the Dingles, so we’ll see!”

On Emmerdale’s nomination for Best Soap, she added: “I think we’ve had an amazing year of stories. We’ve had really challenging stories that have pushed the boundaries with things a lot. They’ve taken the audience on amazing journeys.

“I think the crew, the cast, the writing team, the production – everyone’s put a huge amount of effort into this year. So I think it’s an exciting year for Emmerdale and we’ve got so much more to come, so I think we hopefully will get a win!”