In Coronation Street, Channique Sterling-Brown, who plays lawyer Dee-Dee Bailey, has revealed her struggles with mental illness and her role as a charity ambassador.
Channique Sterling-Brown laughs with locals in a remote African village and learns to shell nuts while watching the livestock.
In a remote rural community in Malawi, where more than 70% of the population resides and eats less than £1.60 per day, she is better known as lawyer Dee-Dee Bailey in Coronation Street.
She is a 5, 000-mile journey away from her Manchester home to support the international development organization Tearfund’s efforts to end period poverty, a subject that this paper is also campaigning to combat with our End Period Poverty campaign.
“I’m very appreciative of my job at Coronation Street, but it’s odd that something has to happen out of nowhere.” You suddenly discover a TV role, and Channique, 28, says it.
“I’m just a girl from Manchester, and I’m not a perfect person,” said the woman who created this profile on Coronation Street. I believe it’s my responsibility to use it to support and inspire others.
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“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.”
Fans of Dee Dee, the fervent lawyer who joined the Bailey clan, the first black family on the street, may believe these words are the product of her mouth.
Off-screen Channique is a committed Christian like Dee-Dee, and she was recently approached by Tearfund, a Christian organization that collaborates with churches in 50 of the poorest nations, to become an ambassador.
She goes on to say, “I adored the sound of a charity that was focusing on empowering, educating, and reaching out to people.” I adored the fact that it also ran through the church.
Channique says this has always been a topic of her heart, despite having visited transformative water and sanitation projects to witness Teardrop’s efforts to end period poverty.
Periodic poverty is a global issue, and there are some girls who do not get their education in the UK, she says.
The community center of my church is in one of Manchester’s most impoverished areas. My donation to our food bank is frequently made with menstrual hygiene products.
It’s obvious that people need to eat, but it’s nice for women to be aware that these items will always be available at the foodbanks.
Channique visits local teenage girls to find out how the charity has helped them break down myths and taboos about menstruation and provide safe and clean restrooms at schools, preventing them from skipping classes.
30% of Malawian young girls skip school for up to a week each month during their period, which refers to the inability to purchase or have access to menstrual products. However, Tearfund is working to alter that.
According to Channique, “we attended a school close to Salima where there is a changing area for the adolescent girls who have their periods.” They can then go straight back to lessons there because they have access to clean water and self-cleansing activities there.
They are also learning how to sew disposable toiletries. The boys are also learning about menstruation and the menstrual cycle while also participating in that. Because I don’t even see it in the UK, I never would have anticipated that.
Channique has first-hand knowledge of the Tearfund-founded community organizations, which have taught villagers valuable business and farming lessons.
Joyce showed me how to shell groundnuts after meeting her. Although I didn’t do it very well, Channique smiles.
She also showed me her animals, she said. She now received 20 bags of groundnuts after the charity taught her how to take the manure from the animals and use it as organic fertilizer. That is incredible, life-changing multiplication, according to that little bit of knowledge.
Channique credits her faith with changing her life by praising both Christianity and the work done through the church.
Her turning point came in 2020 when she signed up for an Alpha Course, an evangelistic Christian course, to learn more about the faith, after growing up in a church-going family in London and then Yorkshire.
She says, “It changed my life, and I don’t take it lightly.” It clarified what Christianity is, which I now know. As a young adult, I assumed that this would mean there would be strict regulations and no fun. But for me, that hasn’t actually happened. It has actually given me a lot of hope and joy.
If I’m honest with myself, she admits, “Before this, I had lots of personal struggles with mental health, in terms of anxiety, self-esteem, and lots of other things.” Finding my faith has given me greater freedom; it looks like the world is now colored.
Before, I had a terrible sense of hopelessness and heartache when I looked at the world. Now I consider the positive initiatives underway and how widespread is change.
When you hear Channique speak, you can hear her non-nonsense, incredibly sympathetic Corrie character Dee-Dee, who has appeared in a lot of dramatic roles, most recently becoming pregnant by her abusive fiancé Joel Deering.
Dee-Dee decided to keep the baby after first going through a termination, and her brother James and his partner Danny plan to take her there. However, it’s obvious Dee-Dee is unsure whether she made the right choice as she spends more time with her daughter.
Channique responds, “She’s having doubts.” She is gaining a relationship with the child. There is a constant battle between the head and the heart in this challenging situation. We’ll definitely see the effects of James taking Leyla because, logically, she thinks it’s best that he or she takes her, but that’s not how she feels.
It wasn’t my intention to be on television, the actress says, adding that she currently teaches Sunday School at her neighborhood church. I’d have been just as content if I’d been watching Coronation Street, which is always what I’d always thought the timing was. I really had found my faith after watching Covid, and I was also a little older and wiser, which gave me better priorities.
Despite loving her storylines and the child who plays Laila, starting a family is not at the top of Channique’s list of priorities right now.
She says, “Working with animals and kids isn’t as bad as people’s say! ” She’s so adorable and chilled out, which is why I love her. At first, I initially found myself quite irritated. Everyone on set was holding her except for me because Dee-Dee didn’t want to form a bond with her! Why are Mike Le Vell (Kevin Webster) and Alan Halsall (Tyrone Dobbs) holding the baby but I’m not?
Channique wants to settle down and become a mother one day, having just purchased her first home in Manchester, which she shares with her best friend.
She enthuses, “I’m still young, so it’s not on the cards right now, but I’d love to have that in my future,” she says. But I’m truly blessed. I’m not short on cuddles because I have a lot of amazing nieces and nephews.
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