Before she died, Leyla Harding (Roxy Shahidi) reminded son Jacob Gallagher (Joe-Warren Plant) about Sarah Sugden’s (Kate Hill) illness in Emmerdale.

The two young characters started seeing each other over Christmas. Amid the excitement of a new relationship and Jacob’s placement at a hospital, Leyla’s comments made him realise he hadn’t actually though about how Sarah’s diagnosis could impact him in the future.

When she was a child, Sarah was diagnosed with Fanconi anaemia (FA), a rare, inherited bone marrow failure syndrome, which increases the risk of cancer and could mean she has a shorter than average life expectancy.

The thought of losing Sarah made Jacob panic initially. Previously, he was in a relationship with Leanna Cavanagh, and then dealt with intense grief when she was murdered by Meena Jutla. 

More recently, Jacob dealt with loss when his dad David Metcalfe left the village and just a mere few days ago, his mum Leyla Harding died in the limo crash.

Reflecting on his character’s experience with losing people close to him, and how that could have an effect on his relationship with Sarah, Joe-Warren Plant said:

‘There’s a tendency for people to leave Jacob in his life, he’s finally clocking onto that. It’s one of the reason why he’s pushing people away in certain situations. If there was a baby it’s definitely something Jacob would think about how would he raise a child on his own.

‘But at the end of the day if he really loves Sarah then that wouldn’t be a good excuse to bin things off. If it came down to it he’d definitely step up. Lots more coming up cant wait, new episodes coming through have got me excited and I’m looking forward to the next year.’

Pondering over the recent changes in the cast, Joe said: ‘Now Matthew and Roxy have gone as well which was heart breaking its allowed me to work with other people I don’t usually have scenes with, it’s quite a breath of fresh air.

‘We all get on so well but you never really interact with each other in scenes, so its nice to see what dynamics Jacob has with other characters.

‘Pushing me in a different direction, rather than playing the son of Leyla and playing parts in their storylines, been nice to get to try something different.’