Former Coronation Street star Ellie Leach wished her ‘best mate’ Colson Smith a happy birthday with the cutest post.

The Faye Windass actress, 23, shared a collage of posts wishing the now 26-year-old (Craig Tinker) well on his special day.

‘Happy Birthday to my best mate @colsonjsmith, hope you have the best day, love youuu,’ she captioned the post.

Colson thanked his co-stars for the messages as he said: ‘Thanks for all the birthday love, I’m feeling proper old.” The soap star decided to mark his special day in unexpected fashion as he ran 26km to celebrate turning 26.

This comes after Colson posed for smiley Instagram photos while holding a’Mr Hair Transplant’ mug and flashing a thumbs up.

‘Slightly different to my usual hairstyle…,’ he said

‘On Monday I had a hair transplant. A transplant has been on my agenda since I first noticed my hair loss at the age 22.

‘Losing my hair at such a young age has been a tough thing for me to come to terms with, I instantly feel SOOO much better and more confident that I’ve taken a step to getting back my luscious strawberry blonde locks.’

He concluded that there’ll be ‘no more comb overs and baseball caps’ and said he was looking forward to a ‘future with a cracking head of hair’.

Colson’s post was met with love from his followers, with @lizziephil18 replying: ‘Good for you and for helping others by being open about it .
You are an absolute inspiration and should be hugely proud of yourself.’

Fellow Coronation Street actress Tina O’Brien, who plays Sarah Platt, added: ‘Go in Colson! Good to see you so happy.’

The actor, who has been on Corrie since 2011, recently came in 3rd place behind Strictly star Nikita Kuzmin and Ibiza Weekender rep David Potts in ITV’s revival of Celebrity Big Brother.