Catherine Jane Mitchell (15 October 1966 – 16 August 2015), known professionally as Kitty McGeever, was an English actress and comedian. She was the first blind actress to be cast in a British soap opera, playing the fictional character

Lizzie Lakely Lizzie Lakely is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale'', played by Kitty McGeever. Lizzie is ''Emmerdale'' first blind character, and was played by a blind actress. She made her first on-screen appearance on 28 Apri ...

in ''

Emmerdale ''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British soap opera that is broadcast on ITV1. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, ...

'' from April 2009 to March 2013.

Life and career

Born in

Bramley, Leeds Bramley is a district in west Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is part of the City of Leeds Ward of Bramley and Stanningley with a population of 21,334 at the 2011 Census. The area is an old industrial area with much 19th century archit ...

, McGeever grew up in Liversedge and

Farsley Farsley is a town in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England to the west of Leeds city centre, east of Bradford. Farsley is situated between the two cities and near the town of Pudsey. Before April 1974, Farsley was pa ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

. She changed her name from Catherine Mitchell to Kitty McGeever as there was already an actress named Catherine Mitchell. She trained at

RADA The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the S ...

and was diagnosed as

diabetic Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level (hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

at the age of 19. McGeever became pregnant in 2001, but developed

pre-eclampsia Pre-eclampsia is a disorder of pregnancy characterized by the onset of high blood pressure and often a significant amount of protein in the urine. When it arises, the condition begins after 20 weeks of pregnancy. In severe cases of the disease ...

. Her son Felix was born two months early; he spent some time in a special care baby unit. At the age of four months, he suddenly became very ill, having problems with his heart and lungs. During her son's illness, McGeever also became ill due to the stress—her kidneys stopped working, she had heart trouble and

diabetic retinopathy Diabetic retinopathy (also known as diabetic eye disease), is a medical condition in which damage occurs to the retina due to diabetes mellitus. It is a leading cause of blindness in developed countries. Diabetic retinopathy affects up to 80 perc ...

caused her to begin to lose her sight. Laser treatment was ineffective; five months later she was blind at the age of 32. Her son Felix died in January 2003, aged fifteen months. She was given a kidney transplant in a successful 12-hour operation. Following her recovery, she contacted her agent in 2008 and suggested that she was ready to begin performing again and would consider television. She was spotted by production staff from the soap ''

'' when she was appearing in a one-woman stage show where she talked about her life as a blind woman. They approached her with a view to creating an authentic blind character for ''Emmerdale'', to be played by McGeever, who would also develop the part. She first appeared as former criminal

in ''Emmerdale'' on 28 April 2009, at the age of 42; Lakely was the first permanent blind character in a British soap. She was given her scripts as sound recordings and had two

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...

-sponsored assistants to guide her around the studios; they also guided her through the sets during rehearsals and ensured continuity between recordings. On 5 January 2010, McGeever appeared on the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

programme '' In Touch'', when she talked to Peter White about losing her sight. She revealed that she had a number of gadgets to assist her, including a CD storage system where audible labels can be recorded, a colour detector to assist with choosing a coordinating outfit and a pair of long-armed oven gloves. In February 2013, it was reported that McGeever had been hospitalised and awaiting a heart transplant. Her sister, ''

'' scriptwriter Caroline Mitchell, denied her sister was awaiting a heart transplant, but stated that she was on the transplant register.

Death

McGeever died on 16 August 2015, aged 48. It was confirmed that she had been waiting for a kidney transplant and had asked for her organs to be donated to help others. Her final movie was Eugene McGing's 2016 horror movie ''

The Unfolding ''The Unfolding'' is a 2016 British horror film directed by Eugene McGing and starring Lachlan Nieboer, Lisa Kerr, Robert Daws, Nick Julian and Kitty McGeever. Much of it is filmed in the style of found footage movies. ''The Unfolding'' had ...

''.

References

External links

*
Lizzie Lakely/Kitty McGeever profile
holysoap.five.tv {{DEFAULTSORT:McGeever, Kitty 1966 births 2015 deaths Alumni of RADA Actresses from Huddersfield English blind people English soap opera actresses English women comedians