A DAD from York will climb Mount Kilimanjaro after he appeared in a touching episode of a new series of a popular TV dating show.

Channel 4's First Dates kicked off a new series last night (September 6) with the heart-warming tale of Claire, a police detective from Bury who was paired with former North Yorkshire Police employee, Matty Lewis, from York.

Matty, 33, lives off Poppleton Road in Holgate, has a four-year-old son and is part of the men’s mental health group Yorkey Dads.

In an interview for the show before the date Matty, who is separated from his former partner, became emotional when talking about his son breaking down in tears.

On the show he said: "I wasn't seeing him every morning, I wasn't seeing him every night when I get home from work...in reality, I am only going to see him two days a week and that is never going to be enough."

On the date the couple hit it off and started talking about children.

Claire, 36, explained she had previously been diagnosed with cervical cancer, which one of the side effects of the treatment was early menopause and it means that Claire is unable to have children.

She told Matty: "I always thought I probably would have kids but I never got a choice, it was taken away from me, so that was really difficult."

Claire said that next year she will be five years cancer-free.

At the end of the episode, it was revealed Matty and Claire will now be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro together to celebrate Claire's five years of being cancer-free, with Matty saying on Twitter: "It didn't work out, but we're doing Kilimanjaro!"

Speaking after the show, Matty said: "Claire and I have kept in touch, but because of the pandemic, we haven't been able to meet up.

"We are definitely doing Kilimanjaro, but it's just a waiting game at the moment because of Covid as to when. There'll be a bit of training to do that's for sure.

"It was great meeting Claire, I am totally in awe of her. Within five minutes of filming we forgot about the cameras and it felt completely natural. Sadly there just wasn't that spark there I suppose, such is life.

"I genuinely went on the show  to meet someone and the search continues."

Speaking about breaking down on camera, Matty said: "I broke down in tears, which I didn't expect to do, but I'm not ashamed of that and I think it's important for men to talk about their emotions, which is something we talk about in York Menfulness."

York Menfulness is a social community for men in York. To find out more go to menfulness.org

First Dates is on Channel 4 on Mondays at 10 pm.