Jenny Sixsmith was a childhood friend of Dawn Acton and had trained at the Oldham Theatre Workshop. Both girls auditioned to take over the role of Tracy Barlow in 1988 after Holly Chamarette had vacated the role but Dawn won out. Nevertheless Jenny did appear in Coronation Street on several occasions from February 1989 to May 1990 as Donna Cox, a friend of Tracy's, thereby fiction mirrored reality. For unknown reasons the character's name was changed in June 1990 to Debbie Dawson and it was under that name that she continued to appear until 1993 after which Jenny Sixsmith appears to have given up acting as a vocation.