Emmerdale viewers were left “sobbing” as Cain Dingle’s diagnosis ended with an emotional confession to Sarah Sugden.

Cain Dingle was first informed of a “sizeable mass” after being shot by John Sugden in Corriedale, but his diagnosis of prostate cancer was the focus of a special episode airing on Wednesday (February 4).

The episode followed Cain’s inner thoughts and tell the story from the character’s perspective. As Cain struggles to process his diagnosis, his mounting denial and anger cause him to clash with anyone who comes across his path, as he wants to be left alone with his inner demons.

His diagnosis comes at an already emotional time for the Dingle’s after Moira has been wrongfully imprisoned for the deaths of Celia Daniels and Anya.

With Moira not there to be his support system, Cain pushed everyone away until eventually opening up to his granddaughter, Sarah Sugden. As viewers may recall, Sarah has had her fair share of bad health news and was quick to show her support for Cain.

As he sat by Zak’s graveside, Sarah joined him. It was then that viewers became teary-eyed as he opened up to her. He admitted: “I’m not well. After the crash, at the hospital, something showed up on my scans and they wanted to run more tests. I told myself it was nothing, but I was wrong.”

Sarah replied: “Listen, you don’t have to go through this on your own. How many times have you told me that? How many times did (Zak) say that? Listen, we’re family, this is not just about you, alright? We’re in this together from now on. You don’t have to keep it inside anymore.”

As he tearfully embraced Sarah, he revealed: “I’ve got cancer. Were you scared? Because I know I am”. Emmerdale viewers were quick to take to social media to praise the episode.

@eternitydropped penned: “Wow. No words. What an episode. Jeff Hordley was absolutely INCREDIBLE. I am sobbing. A very real, raw and honest representation of a cancer diagnosis” as @ziggyaps agreed: “Today’s #Emmerdale episode was devastating, Jeff was amazing. Sobbing already and it’s only the beginning of this storyline.”

On a Reddit thread, viewers were also quick to praise Sarah for her involvement in the storyline. u/other-conversation-8 said: “Such a good episode today! I love that he told Sarah it was a nice moment between the two of them”.

u/knockout1021 replied: “Yeah I agree, and I think she was a good person to tell tbh, because of what she has been through and everything.”

Addressing the episode on This Morning, Jeff Hordley (Cain) teased: “Well, I mean, this story is going to play for a while. I don’t even think the writers, the team or the producers have decided where it’s going to go as from now. It’s going to play for a while, and we’ll just have to wait and see where it goes.”

Touching on the fact that Cain would rather keep this to himself and focus on helping Moira, he added: “He wants to keep it from everyone, he doesn’t confide in anybody, to do with all of this. He doesn’t want to tell Moira because she’s in prison, and she’s having a tough time.

“The person who he’d normally confide in and use for his source of comfort is not there because he wants to protect her. The kids, that’s a really big thing as well for him because he’s such a family man, it’s tough for him.”