Chas becomes so terrified at The Woolpack that she accidentally stabs her friend Diane Sugden.
In the aftermath, Chas flees from the pub in terror and ends up
disorientated in the woods - seeing strange visions of Robert as well as
hearing noises of gunshots and voices.
The experience is so frightening for Chas that
she trips and falls unconscious, but the ordeal leads to her finally
getting the help she needs when a doctor later diagnoses her with PTSD.
Lucy
Pargeter, who plays Chas, revealed: "Chas doubts the diagnosis
initially, I think many people do. It's mentioned to her by Aaron after
all the wood stuff happens. He has an inkling that this is what she
might be suffering from. Many
people think it's only soldiers who might get PTSD, but it can happen
to anybody. It's triggered by a traumatic event, like the diagnosis of
an illness, the witnessing of a car crash, or being in a crash. It
can have so many different triggers and it doesn't necessarily happen
straight away. It's taken a while, and Chas has had quite a lot of bad
things happen to her!"
Pargeter explained that Chas's issues date back
to her previous ordeal with serial killer Cameron Murray, who was
killed after a horrifying siege at the pub in 2013.
"I
think it's nice for the show to say that these things don't always just
go away, and that the repercussions can happen a couple of years after
the event. We've worked really
closely with Mind, who have been quite happy for it to be a female
character that isn't a soldier. We've been working with them on the
symptoms and how it can manifest, so hopefully we have done it justice. Not
every case is the same. There are loads of different triggers and it
can manifest itself in different ways. The sleepwalking was quite
interesting to discover, as it does cause sleeplessness. We then tied it
in with the Emma stuff, so it's been nice to see it weaving its way
through."
Chas's diagnosis will initially
cause fireworks in the village, as Doug Potts wonders whether it's all a
Dingle con to get her off the hook for stabbing Diane. Aaron, Cain
and Zak all angrily jump to Chas's defence, and Doug is forced to
sheepishly back down when the reality of the situation becomes clear.
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