Casualty’s Faith Cadogan (played by Kirsty Mitchell) is embarking on a huge new career path in the long running BBC drama. She has recently applied to medical school in order to study to become a doctor.

This would be a stressful move for anyone but for mum-of-three Faith’s case, she is also a recovering drug addict. With stress, a key factor in many addicts’ relapses it begs the question could Faith once again go down that path?

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk Kirsty says she doesn’t believe so. “There’s a nervousness about it, and a sense of being a bit older in her career to be doing this. But it’s something she wants to do and everybody’s been so positive.

“As far as addicts go you are always an addict but everybody’s been supportive to her – all the people that count. I don’t think it’s [relapsing] something that she’s thought about.

“She’s very motivated, in a sense, for her career and her little box of people that are important to her and has learned to shut out other people’s opinions, because she’s had to be strong to come back to work in the first place.”

Faith Cadogan has struggled with drug abuse in Casualty (Image: BBC)

While it may seem like a drastic move to undertake a medical degree Kirsty believes this could always have been on the cards for her.

“When I started on the show five years ago she’d just gone back to work at that point after having a lot of time off with the kids.

“Maybe it’s something that she’s always wanted to do and always intended to do, and now that she has Iain (Dean) back in her life and has his support she feels that she has the time to do it.”

Paramedic Iain (Michael Stevenson) and Faith recently reunited to the delight of fans and he has become a father figure to her son Luca.

Faith Cadogan has struggled with drug abuse in the past on Casualty (Image: BBC)

Kirsty also revealed that the move to doctor is not as big a leap as is seems since as an Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP) Faith is already doing a doctor’s job in all but title.

“You don’t see all the patients she treats on television – you see it now and again – but this would just be a different label for her, and she would feel less undermined with things.

“When you actually look into what an ACP does, it’s quite similar, like a mid-level doctor anyway.

“They would be in charge of a situation. They would be in charge of anything within the room, the junior doctor [equivalent].”