Casualty’s Faith Cadogan (played by Kirsty Mitchell) has made the huge decision to train as a doctor in the long running BBC medical drama. In recent weeks she has been seen applying to study and turning to Dylan Keogh (William Beck) for guidance about the decision.

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk Kirsty explained what has instilled this seemingly sudden drive for a career change in the mum of three.

“They showed in one episode where she’s being slightly undermined or dismissed and I think that starts to get under her skin,” she admitted.

“There’s a sense of I have to have a different label for people to not undermine me, or stop presuming that I don’t know what I’m doing.

“Then she realised how much she knows and what she survived and she wants to take things to the next level and just move up and become a doctor,” she said.

“But I think there have been certain little things and signs from her that she’s just ready to move to the next level [prior to this],” she ruminated.

Indeed Kirsty feels this may always have been a part of Faith’s plan. “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.

Kirsty Mitchell, who plays Faith Cadogan in Casualty, says the character was feeling undermined (Image: BBC)

While it may appear a huge undertaking Kirsty revealed that 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].”