Emmerdale‘s Cain Dingle is set to receive a troubling diagnosis next week, following his recent medical tests. The mechanic will be told that he has prostate cancer, leaving him completely overwhelmed as he flees the consultation.

A special episode will showcase Cain’s perspective and inner thoughts, while he struggles to process the difficult news. The character predictably lashes out at his loved ones before isolating himself from everyone.

“We want to tell the story of a man who doesn’t normally talk about his feelings – I think that’s probably why they chose my character for this particular story,” Jeff Hordley, who plays Cain, told Digital Spy and other media.

“We see him through the journey of a day, including going to the hospital to get the news from the doctor… It’s just a really lovely episode. You get to see somebody dealing with this, and wanting to work it all out and how they’re going to deal with it.”

The storyline will explore the various symptoms and side effects of prostate cancer, including erectile dysfunction and incontinence, which Hordley described as “really damaging to males and their egos”.

“Having to talk about that and confront it is where we want to go down,” he explained. “As well as this, it is a big love story between Moira and Cain. That was underpinning all this. How they get all these adverse challenges and how they deal with them.”

The timing of the diagnosis couldn’t be worse for Cain, as Moira is charged with two murders that same day – having been set up by Celia Daniels. Without his wife around to support him, a stressed out Cain finds an unlikely confidant in granddaughter Sarah Sugden.

“He doesn’t feel he can tell anybody because the person he’d normally tell these things to would be Moira and she’s in prison,” shared Hordley. “So he feels like he can’t really say this to anyone. He does confide in his granddaughter.”

The star, who debuted on the ITV soap in 2000, also teased that there would be a “different side” to Cain, which will be revealed as he begins to talk about his feelings with different characters.

“That’s what’s great about this particular story for him – it’s having to see him face challenges and open up to some truth that he never thought he’d have to deal with,” he explained.