ACTRESS and television presenter Denise Welsh has visited children undergoing treatment for cancer.

The 52-year-old, from Ebchester, near Consett, County Durham, chatted to staff and young people at the teenage cancer unit, at the RVI, in Newcastle.

Denise, who played Coronation Street’s Natalie Barnes and is a regular on ITV’s Loose Women, said: “God forbid anything happens to your child, but if you have to go anywhere for treatment, you should come to a place like this.”

The £1.7m unit was opened earlier this year by the Duchess of York with Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie and The Who frontman Roger Daltrey.

The ten-bed ward provides care for 13 to 18-year-olds from the North-East and Cumbria and has a common room with juke box, pool table and flat screen TV.

Denise added: “There is a real community feel to it.

This is the first time I have been and am blown away by it.”