Toni Griffiths was the firefighting colleague of Paul Kershaw. In March 2013, Toni began organising a Full Monty show involving the male firefighters to raise money for charity. This caused suspicion for Paul's partner Eileen Grimshaw when she discovered Toni was a woman and not, as thought, a man. Paul decided to prove his love for Eileen and approached Toni, whose cousin had a shop selling rings, so he could propose to Eileen. However Eileen was suspicious of their relationship, and with her half-sister Julie Carp went to the fire station. Upon finding the place deserted, they set about trying to find a photo of Toni in the locker room but ended up diving into a cupboard when they heard Paul's voice. It wasn't long before a claustrophobic Julie burst out of the cupboard, startling Paul and Toni. Although Toni found the incident amusing, Paul was enraged and embarrassed by the thought of Eileen not trusting him. However he quickly made up with Eileen and the couple announced their engagement.
When half of the fire station's crew fell ill with food poisoning, Toni was concerned the show would be cancelled as there was no one to perform. Eileen decided to convince some of Coronation Street's male residents to take part in the show at Nick's Bistro. During the evening, a fire started at the Rovers Return Inn while the show was going on, with Stella Price trapped inside. Paul and Toni entered to help Stella and her ex-partner Karl Munro who attempted to save her (although unknown to everyone he was the cause of the blaze). Paul got Stella out, but Toni went back inside the Rovers to help Karl who had collapsed. She got Karl out the window to aiding firefighters, but the roof collapsed on top of her before she could escape, killing her.
Toni's death caused Paul to suffer from survivor's guilt and he blamed himself for what had happened. She left behind her husband Mike, and a sister.
List of appearances[]
2013