SOAP Queen Denise Welch thinks a new maternity shop is just swell - and to prove it, she went along to the opening on Saturday.
The star, who plays pregnant Natalie Barnes in Coronation Street, and is herself six months gone, helped launch Swell Maternity Wear, in Norton, Stockton.
She agreed to perform the task after being so impressed with its clothes that she filmed the show's Christmas special wearing them.
Lindsay Cornfield, the shop owner, said: "I wrote to Denise Welch because I know she's from the North-East saying that if she was ever in need of maternity wear, we were here.
"She rang me a few weeks later and said she needed something to wear for Blankety Blank.
"I have only been open for eight weeks and I was thinking of doing an official opening, so I thought Denise would be the ideal person to ask.
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