Polly Weeks talks to the newest member of the Hollyoaks cast, Kelly-Marie Stewart

THE surprise arrival of a long-lost family member is a favourite trick for many soap storylines – from Nick Cotton turning up on Christmas Day with his daughter, Dotty, in EastEnders, to the arrival of Tyrone’s vile mother, Jackie, in Coronation Street.

But when Hollyoaks’ Zak comes face to face with his sister Hayley next week, will he be left looking like the bad guy?

Hayley’s appearance marks the Hollyoaks debut of 24-year-old Kelly-Marie Stewart.

“She turns up and she’s never been mentioned or talked about before, and that’s the big shock,” Kelly-Marie explains.

“Zak’s had a conversation with his girlfriend when he’s actually talked about his family and hasn’t even told anyone that he’s got a sister. And he’s got a lot of best friends who have also never heard anything about him having a sister.”

The fact that Hayley is in a wheelchair is a further twist in the tale – and one that’s integral to why the siblings’ relationship deteriorated.

“Hayley doesn’t know he’s been keeping her a secret,” Hayley says.

“She turns up because it’s his birthday and she wants to surprise him. They used to be best friends and then, when she ended up in hospital, he didn’t really bother with her – she thinks. So she’s going there really to make amends and then she realises that he’s been telling lies and not even telling anyone that he’s got a sister.”

What follows is Zak trying to keep his sister and friends as far away from each other as possible, which leaves loud-mouth girlfriend Michaela and his other close pals suspicious – mistaking Hayley for an ex-girlfriend, rather than noticing any family resemblance.

However, with Hayley’s personality, it’s not long before she’s part of the Hollyoaks in- crowd.

“She’s quite a nice character,” Kelly-Marie says.

“She’s quite bubbly and outgoing, but she won’t let anyone cross her. If anyone tries to give her a hard time or if anyone tries to pass comments regarding the wheelchair, or anything like that, she won’t let anyone walk all over her. She’ll probably make more friends than she will enemies.”

While Hayley’s disability is ascribed to a virus that left her wheelchair-bound, in real life Kelly-Marie suffers from Guillain-Barre syndrome.

The illness is an acute disease of the peripheral nervous system, which affects the nerves in the arms and legs.

Kelly-Marie has been wheelchair-bound for 2½ years, and admits she struggled to come to terms with her illness.

“Initially, I was hoping it was going to go as quickly as it came,” she says.

“Obviously it was a shock but I was in hospital for six months so I was just positive the whole time, thinking I was going to walk out. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, but I think I had good family and good friends around me, so I probably coped as well as could be expected.”

Adapting to life in a wheelchair may have been forced upon her, but Kelly-Marie quickly took control.

“When you’re in hospital, they’ve got everything that you need there. So I thought I’d adapted there, but when you get home you realise you haven’t.

“But you just find your own way of doing everything and there’s nothing really I can’t do except walk.”

Before her illness, Kelly-Marie studied drama, and worked as an air hostess.

She’s over the moon to have finally got her big break on the Chester-based soap: “Everyone has been dead nice, everyone makes you feel dead welcome, there’s a good family atmosphere and everyone looks out for everybody,” she says.

“We have a good laugh.”

Living down the road from the set makes the long hours easier to cope with – “when I’ve had a long day, I’m in the house 10 minutes later and back to normality” – and means she’s able to make the most of her spare time.

“When I’m not working, I just like spending time with my family and friends, shopping, the usual girl stuff.”

But, even though she’s thrilled to be taking on the role of Hayley, Kelly-Marie is not so keen on the inevitable headlines proclaiming her position as the first disabled actress in Hollyoaks.

“It wasn’t that nice because, at the end of the day, we cast for 18 months for the role and I worked hard to get it – so for it to be just taken off like that, it felt like it was not really perceived in the right way.”

But, hopefully, when people watch the scenes, they’ll realise that that’s not how it is. That Hayley is actually quite a good character.

HAYLEY joins the Hollyoaks cast on January 24.