Gill Collins was an unemployed friend of Sharon Gaskell who tried to warn her off Brian Tilsley in September 1982 when she realised he was a married man. Sharon discovered that Gill wouldn't be needing her bike for a couple of days and so hatched a plan to puncture the front tyre with a drawing pin and go to Sykes and Tilsley's Garage so that Brian would repair it. Although Brian knew that Sharon fancied him, he agreed to fix the puncture anyway. Gill was a regular visitor to 7 Coronation Street where Sharon was living with foster parents Len and Rita Fairclough until the end of the year when Sharon left Weatherfield having got a job placement as a kennel maid with a new set of foster parents in Sheffield.