Shayne Ward was left in tears as he urged men to reach out for help, while winning a British Soap Award for Aidan Connors suicide storyline.
The former Coronation Street actor collected the Best Storyline gong at the annual ceremony, for the episode where his character, Aidan Connor, ended his own life.
After accepting the Best Single Episode earlier on in the night, the 34-year-old took to the stage and delivered a moving acceptance speech that left audience members visibly crying.
He also used the opportunity to make a plea for men to address the taboo of mental health and suicide head-on.
What can I say other than thank you so much. I was not expecting this, in fact, I wasnt even meant to be coming here tonight. So thank you to the Coronation Street team for picking up the phone and asking me to come, the X Factor winner said.
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Addressing his fellow soap stars, at the Lowry Theatre in Manchester, he continued: Its amazing. As we always say its a collective, it is never a solo story.
It was told with so much heart. We told it with so much truth. The impact that suicide has, its an ongoing thing and us guys dont talk enough. We say it all the time, “Its a little bit of banter”.
As the audience welled up, Shayne also became emotional as he added: Behind those closed doors is the tears of a clown. You need to start talking. You really do.
Now we use this platform to try and tackle this taboo. I want to thank every single person at Coronation Street.
It was an absolute joy to play Aidan Connor and lets just keep tackling this taboo of suicide.
Shaynes character took his own life in the ITV soap, in emotional scenes which aired earlier this year.
The storyline worked to highlight the tragic increase of male suicide and has been praised by many.
Discussing his final scenes on the cobbles, he previously told Metro.co.uk: As an actor I was honoured to be given the responsibility of this storyline, what actor would give up that opportunity?
It was a decision that was made between us all and was totally storyline led, they sat me down and said they were thinking of exploring this issue and I understood the importance of it. At the end of the day I could have said no that I couldnt do it.
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But I thought about it and talked it through and there was a greater pull to want to do the storyline. I will miss playing Aidan and working with the fantastic people on this show but it is a massively important storyline to tell.
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