'Hollyoaks' star Gary Lucy pitched the dementia storyline for his character Luke Morgan.
Gary Lucy
In the Channel 4 soap, Luke - a former football player and coach - was diagnosed with Frontotemporal dementia in 2019 and viewers have seen his condition worsen, with him even forgetting the name of his best friend Darren Osborne’s (Ashley Taylor Dawson).
Gary has revealed that he spoke with the producers and writers about introducing the plot because early onset dementia has never been tackled in a soap before.
He said: "It was actually my suggestion - it was something I really wanted to do as this type of dementia hasn't been covered before in soap, and it's horrendous.
"It was a really important story for me to tell, but I do think I've maybe put a lot of pressure on myself with it.
"The next few months will be a sad progression of his illness, and the worsening of his mental state.
"The things he's doing will become more reckless and less rational, and you'll see the knock-on effects. It will be quite heart-breaking, I think."
The 39-year-old actor has experience of dementia in real life as his grandmother suffers from the degenerative condition - which affects the sufferer's memory, cognitive thinking and behaviour - and he has seen first-hand the effect it has on the wider family.
In an interview with Inside Soap magazine, he said: "My nan suffers from dementia. She's much further along than Luke is - she's in a home - but it's the family members it's so tough on, because the person with dementia is in their own little world.
"With those links to my nan and everything our family is going through, I really wanted to do it justice."
Tagged in Gary Lucy Ashley Taylor Dawson