Coronation Street ’s Rob Mallard has been raising awareness of a nervous system (neurological) disorder he lives with.
The actor, who plays Daniel Osbourne in the ITV soap, was chatting about his character's latest storyline on This Morning on Tuesday, when the conversation turned to his health condition.
Rob, 29, spoke openly about the tremor that sometimes impacts him when filming scenes for the long-running soap.
"I was diagnosed with an essential tremor when I was 14, but I didn’t realise how serious it was until I was in my mid 20s. You assume with shaking it’s an old people thing," he explained to hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield via video link.
"It’s common in young people and often misdiagnosed as anxiety, or people may think your withdrawing from something, whereas it’s actually neurones in the brain that are firing incorrectly, causing involuntary shaking."
Essential tremor is a nervous system (neurological) disorder that causes involuntary and rhythmic shaking. It can affect almost any part of the body, but the trembling usually occurs most often in someone's hands.
Tuesday's This Morning interview - live from the Rovers Return set - isn't the first time Rob has spoken about his health condition.
In 2020, the Corrie star explained how he sometimes tries to to "camouflage" his shaking when he's working on the ITV soap.
"The hardest scenes for me to film technically are the close-ups when I’m holding a phone," he admitted to Inside Soap.
"I’ve got a tremor, so I have to try to camouflage it on set. I make a point of using as many props as I can, so I can get used to it."
Rob is best known for his role on the cobbled streets of Weatherfield - joining the soap as Ken Barlow's (William Roache) youngest son Daniel Osbourne in 2016.
After speaking so candidly about his health condition on Tuesday, many This Morning viewers took to social media to praise the star for raising awareness
"I have a bit of a tremor due to my FND so to hear @Rob_Mallard talking about it and highlighting it is so good! Thanks Rob for your voice and your honestly in this," one fan wrote to the star on Twitter.
Another added: "omg I can't believe you have brought awareness to essential tremors!
"I always got such a weird look from people when I've mentioned it. I've had it since I can remember! Thank you!"
The National Tremor Foundation also took the time to share Rob's interview with their followers and praise the actor for his comments.
"Thank you to @Rob_Mallard for mentioning National #EssentialTremor awareness month & @NatTremor on @thismorning today. Some of you may recall Rob came to an NTF online meetup last year," they captioned a link to Rob's This Morning cameo.
*This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV.
