For weeks now fans of the long running ITV1 soap Emmerdale set in the stunning Yorkshire Dales have been watching with grave concern over the rapid decline in the health of one of the shows younger stars Sarah Sugden.

But viewers are in for a shock by the shows new and very controversial storyline which centers around sick young Sarah and her anxious parents Debbie Dingle and Andy Sugden looking on helplessly as their young daughters physical condition begins to deteriorate quickly.

Blood tests confirm that Sarah desperately needs a bone-marrow transplant to stand any chance of surviving and her best chance would be from a bone marrow match from a sibling that has the same mum and dad as her.

Now as we all know, Debbie and Andy might share a great love for their daughter Sarah but the couple haven’t been together for years.

Debbie is with her new partner Cameron and Andy is seeing Alicia.

As the week begins in the Yorkshire Dales an anxious Debbie and Andy return to the hospital but as their sick child is taken down to theatre the couple start arguing and it’s left to poor Cameron to calm the warring pair down by telling them to accept that this might be the first of many hospital visits to come.

You’ve got to give it to the brilliant script writers on Emmerdale for not being afraid to raise such tough moral issues that shows how each of their characters have to suffer and deal with being in such a terrible dilemma.

This is a storyline that could inevitably force Debbie Dingle and Andy Sugden back together for the sake of saving Sarah’s life but will they actually go through with having another baby purely to save the life of their other child?

Watch Emmerdale on ITV tonight in an hour long special at 7pm.