WILL Mellor has revealed the heartbreaking reason he signed up for Strictly Come Dancing.
The 46-year-old actor has finally agreed to be part of Strictly this year after being approached by bosses on a number of previous occasions.
Speaking about why this year felt like the right time for him, Will told The Sun Online: "You have your reasons in life when you do things, I would genuinely have been frightened to do stuff like this and say no to stuff because I was always worried about what other people would think.
"But I lost my dad in 2020 and everything changed. It just crippled me and I thought, 'I've got to grab life and I've got to do stuff'.
"It just really changed my mindset and I said I'm going to say yes to more things.
"You've just got to grab life and create memories, because that's what you end up with, memories."
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Will's dad Bill Mellor tragically passed away in April 2020, just weeks after being diagnosed with cancer, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Will was unable to be with his grieving family due to restrictions and the family was hit by further heartache when his mum also lost her brother, sister-in-law and brother-in-law in the space of a year.
He said: "Strictly is my mum's favourite show and she's had the worst time of it, so I thought we need something positive in our lives.
"My mum is an amazing woman who has been there for all of us, so it's time to do something – it is for me as well – but for her.
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"She can come down, enjoy it and get on this journey with us."
The only concern Will has is if an old football injury re-emerges once he starts training for Strictly.
He explained: "I've got really bad knees from football injuries so I was always worried about that as well.
"But you have to just work around it and just hope it doesn't pop out live on tele!"
Strictly Come Dancing begins on Saturday, September 17 at 6.10pm on BBC One.
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