Casualty and Holby City star Amanda Mealing’s solicitor has revealed the actress has been battling blood cancer as she admitted to driving after taking cocaine

Amanda Mealing(Image: Mike Marsland/WireImage)

As Amanda Mealing admits to drug driving, her solicitor has revealed she is currently battling blood cancer. The former Casualty star, 57, has been suspended from driving for 22 months and must pay £485 after her cocaine-fuelled crash last year. The incident left crash victim Mark Le Sage, 58, needing to give up his career as a theatre nurse due to his injuries.

A court heard Mealing, 57, was dealing with the traumatic deaths of her father, her best friend and her dog when she took the Class A drug the night before the smash in 2024. She crashed her Mini vehicle into Le Sage’s Skoda. He has claimed he thinks things could have been far worse had he not been driving such a powerful car.

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Now, her solicitor Edward Lloyd has moved to further detail the pressures the actress was under at the time of the accident. He said: “Unfortunately it came at a terrible moment in her life.

“She tells me she was undergoing divorce proceedings from her husband, which was extremely upsetting. Within a short space of time her father had died, she had to put her dog down and her best friend had died. So all of these events occurred. It was deeply, deeply upsetting.”

Amanda Mealing in Casualty(Image: PA)

Lloyd continued: “She is, however, a lady who has significant health problems. She suffers from blood cancer, so she’s not working at the present time.”

Prior to Mealing’s conviction last week, a court heard that the actress, who played Clinical Lead of Cardiothoracic surgery in Holby City and Clinical Lead Casualty’s Emergency Department, veered her car across a road before colliding with Mark Le Sage’s car as he was heading to work. Le Sage, who was driving a 1.6ton Skoda Kodiaq, claims to have been left unconscious following the collision.

Prosecutor Marie Stace informed Boston Magistrates’ Court that Mealing, who appeared under her married name of Amanda Sainsbury, had sustained a cut to the head, a broken wrist and a broken clavicle in the accident.

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Mealing admitted to driving under the influence of cocaine and driving without due care and attention. The court also heard how Mealing had 18mcg of cocaine in her blood. This is almost double the legal limit of 10mcg.

The court also found she was also in excess of 240mcg of benzoylecgonine, which is the chemical that cocaine leaves after being metabolised in the body. This is almost five times over the legal limit of 50mcg.

Le Sage claims that since the accident he can no longer stand on his feet for a long period of time. He also says he cannot tolerate the colder temperatures in an operating theatre, which has led to him changing his role to become a community mental health nurse.

Mealing’s solicitor, Mr Edward Lloyd, told the court that the defendant does not accept Le Sage’s account of his injuries, adding there is no evidence of that level of injury.