Waterloo Road’s Lauren Patel has confirmed she has departed the school drama, in a series that’s seen a young student die as a result of an anaphylactic shock.
Lauren portrayed the role of Jas Sharma in the show. Her latest storyline has seen the teacher use an app to earn some extra money. She would pose as a friend or girlfriend to users of the app, who would pay to message her.
Miss Sharma began talking to someone called Martin. He claimed to be a 40-year-old man and to Jas, it just looked like another person searching for someone to talk to.
Eventually, Martin was revealed to be Dwayne (Thapelo Ray), a lonely student of Miss Sharma’s.
Dwayne came clean to Jas about being Martin after rumours started circulating around the school. As a result of things escalating, headteacher Stella Drake (Lindsey Coulson) also learnt of Jas’s side hustle.
Jas’ final scenes aired in episode three of the current series.
Star Lauren Patel recently took to Instagram to pay tribute to the show.
She shared a variety of behind the scenes pics, with four of them featuring Lauren and her co-stars, and the other of her outside Waterloo Road.
She wrote alongside: ‘That’s a wrap on miss sharma! if you missed my last episode of waterloo road , you can watch it on bbc iplayer now ! episode 3 of the new series . this job brought so many wonderful people into my life , i’ll forever be grateful for it.’
In the instalment that followed after Jas’ departure, a devastating story aired that saw Hope Drake (Savannah Kunyo) die.
After Hope caught Darius Donovan (Jon Richardson) in a compromising position, he knocked some cakes off the table. He put them back, but failed to take note of the fact the dairy and non-dairy options had been mixed up.
Hope consumed one of the dairy based cakes and as a result of her severe allergy, she experienced an anaphylactic shock and died.
As the granddaughter of Stella Drake, the headteacher, the situation hits painfully close to home for the school’s leadership as the rest of the series continues.
It also forces both the staff and families to confront the realities of food allergy awareness, and the need for a prompt emergency response.
Waterloo Road has worked with The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation for this storyline, to ensure it was reflective of the issues of food allergy management in schools, and the fatal risks of anaphylaxis.
Cameron Roache, Founder of Rope Ladder Fiction and Executive Producer of Waterloo Road said:
‘We’re so grateful for the support and guidance from the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation as we wrote the storylines around raising awareness of food allergies in the school environment.
‘As with many stories in Waterloo Road, the show can be an amazing vehicle to raise issues that young people and families face.’
Founder of The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation Tanya Ednan-Laperouse OBE, whose daughter died at 15 from a food allergy, added:
‘The growing number of children with diagnosed food allergies in schools means that food allergies are a significant issue in the classroom.
‘We are delighted that Waterloo Road chose to highlight the issues and challenges around keeping pupils with food allergies safe in school.
‘We hope this storyline will help raise awareness that food allergies are not a lifestyle choice but a serious medical condition.’