Strictly Come Dancing star Will Mellor has shared how he keeps his late father's memory alive every time he steps on to the dance floor.
The former Hollyoaks actor tragically lost his beloved father Bill to cancer in 2020.
Will says the loss of his dad still impacts him daily and he was inspired to seize every opportunity - including his current stint on Strictly - in Bill's honour.
While Will has made no secret of his love for his late dad, viewers may not have noticed a secret gesture the former soap star has come to undertake to make sure his dad is always with him on the dancefloor.
Will has found wearing his dad's ring a way of taking a moment of contemplation amid the sequins and spotlights of the Strictly studio.
Speaking exclusively to OK! magazine, Will said: "I wear his ring every day for every performance. I always have a little moment with it before I go on and dance. It means he’s with me.
"He gave me the confidence to go and do this. When I was a kid he was always saying, ‘You can go and do it,’ and I came from somewhere where no-one did what I wanted to do.''
Will grew up on a council estate and credits his working class parents support to 'believe in dreams' as a driving force to him going on to have a successful career.
But with such close family ties, Will was rocked when his father Bill passed away just two weeks after a cancer diagnosis describing his death as a 'horrible time'.
And by signing up to Strictly he hoped to give his 'megafan' mum some joy through her grief and has involved his whole family in the show experience.
He explained: ''No matter what happens with this journey, no one can take away the moments from me of having my family there and seeing my daughter happy in the audience. That made me so emotional and that’s what I live for as my family mean everything to me. I don’t know where I’d be without them.''
Will says that since losing his father it has made him aware of his own mortality and to seize every opportunity as 'life's too short'.
Will, who along with his professional partner Nancy Xu are one of the favourites to lift the coveted Glitterball Trophy, said: "You suddenly have to start saying yes to things and grab life and do things that scare you. It’s showed me that when something really bad happens you can come out the other end."
The Corrie star said it's not the first time he'd been approached to appear on the BBC show but was spurred on to 'grab every opportunity' since his father's death.
