Coronation Street star Jack James Ryan couldn't hide his delight as he told fans of his latest personal achievement. The actor is best known for playing Jacob Hay on the ITV soap, making his debut in 2020 before returning last year.
Fans initially hated the character after he tormented Leanne Battersby following the heartbreaking death of her son while recruiting her son Simon Barlow into selling drugs. He later disappeared after getting on the wrong side of drug boss Harvey Gaskell. But the character, played by Will Mellor, caused chaos on the cobbles, resulting in the death of Natasha Blakeman.
But since his return, Corrie viewers have warmed to Jacob as he struck up a relationship with Amy Barlow and tried to turn his life around by getting a job at the Underworld factory.
Away from the cobbles, life has just got a bit more exciting for Jack. Taking to Instagram on Monday evening (July 11), the soap star shared a snap of himself holding up a certificate while covering his eyes with a pair of shades as he was outside in the sun.
And the document he was gripping rightly to confirmed he had just passed his driving test. "Guess who passed his driving test," he wrote alongside the snap to his thousands of followers, unable to wipe the smile off of his face.
Also away from the cobbles, Jack has been pledging his support to the Teenage Cancer Trust. He joined forces with the charity to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of cancer in young people and is urging people to get themselves checked out if they have any concerns.
It comes after he spoke out in May about his own battle with testicular cancer. Jack was just 19 when he was diagnosed in 2017. While going on to make a full recovery, the soap star shared how he feels 'grateful to be alive' and that his life on the cobbles is enriched further by what he has been through. "Every day I get on set I think: ‘Wow, this could have been so different,'" he said.
Jack, now 24, explained that he was studying at drama school when he returned to his mum Maranna's house in Manchester for the Easter holidays and discovered a lump while his mum and older sister Rebecca, who recently starred in the ITV soap as Lydia Chambers, were downstairs.
"My sister had a friend round. I screamed: ‘Rebecca! Rebecca!’ She ran upstairs and I told her that her friend had to go," he recalled to the Mirror. "She asked her to leave and she came back upstairs with my mum and I told them what I’d found."
Jack got booked into the doctors and was referred to hospital, where he had surgery to remove his left testicle and went on to receive a prosthetic replacement. Afterwards, he underwent chemotherapy to ensure that the cancer had not spread. Four months later he returned to his course at Guildford School of Acting in Surrey.
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