Tears flowed as Mark Wright opened up about his latest TV mission… a humbling, heartrending journey into the world of kids in the grip of crime and poverty.

The telly star broke down as he rang his actress wife Michelle Keegan during an emotion-charged Unicef charity trip to a gun-plagued township.

Mark, 32, was in South Africa – and Michelle was in the country too, filming army drama Our Girl.

Ex-Towie star Mark was shaken by the stark reality of life at Saldanha Bay, 100 miles from Cape Town.

Families were huddled in flimsy homes the size of a garden shed.

Kids slept while gunfire from rival gangs echoed around them.

One boy even told Mark how he had bought a gun for a revenge killing.

Mark, who married former Corrie star Michelle, 32, in 2015, said: “I had to hold back tears so many times. I had lumps in my throat.

“I had to take myself away from the kids so they didn’t see me cry. I rang my wife when I got home that night and I was in tears. It’s so hard to see.

“What I saw has stayed with me. I’m immensely driven but after meeting those children I’m relaxed. I've got nothing to worry about, I’ve got a great life, I’m healthy, my family are safe.

“Those kids aren’t so fortunate.”

Mark was visiting Michelle when he was invited by Unicef to make a two-day visit to the Middelpos Safe Park in Saldanha Bay.

The centre provides play areas for youngsters trying to escape the run-down streets outside their homes.

Mark said: “One of the kids, Siphe, his brother was killed when he was 15, shot by a drug dealer.

“He had this plan that he was going to get back the guy who killed his brother. He planned it, he had the gun, he was ready to do it.

“But he met a Unicef counsellor and realised there was more to life than revenge. He wants to be a professional football player, he does acting and singing. It saved his life.

“He went from a 14-year-old child to thinking about killing someone. Now he wants to make something of his life. He wants to be somebody. If it wasn’t for the help he received he would have ended up dead or in prison.”

"I can't wait to tackle my hero in Soccer Aid"

Mark Wright is buzzing about the prospect of facing Brazil’s Roberto Carlos at next Sunday’s Soccer Aid.

Before TV, Mark was a semi-pro footballer with a youth career at West Ham, Arsenal and Tottenham.

Now he relishes the chance to face World Cup winner and ex-Real Madrid star Carlos, now 46.

Mark says: “I played left back when I was growing up and Roberto Carlos was my idol. The fact I’m playing on the same field is unbelievable.

“If I’m left back for England and he’s left back on the opposite team that will be a dream come true. I aspired to be him.

“Playing in Soccer Aid is incredible. I was a budding professional footballer, I played in front of probably 10,000 people at most in a Conference game. But I always used to dream of playing in a Premier League stadium, with Premier League players, with the Three Lions on my shirt.

“So Soccer Aid is a dream come true. But to know that what we’re doing will help others makes it so much better. It’s a double whammy.”

Every pound the public donates to Soccer Aid for Unicef until July will be matched by the Government and will benefit millions of stricken children around the world. Mark is part of the England team, managed by ex-England boss Sam Allardyce and Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid.

He will be playing alongside the likes of athletics legend Sir Mo Farah, SAS telly star Ant Middleton, actor David Harewood and comic Lee Mack.

Ex-international stars playing include Jamie Redknapp, Michael Owen, John Terry, Joe Cole, David Seaman, Rachel Yankey and Katie Chapman. The Soccer Aid World XI team includes singer Jack Savoretti, sprint legend Usain Bolt, 1D star Niall Horan and actors James McAvoy and Martin Compston.

They will line up with former soccer stars Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Robbie Keane, Eric Cantona and Ricardo Carvalho. The World XI will be managed by Harry Redknapp and Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan.

For Mark – who plays in the Soccer Aid charity match next week – the poverty in the Western Cape is a world away from his upbringing in Buckhurst Hill, Essex.

He tried his hand at being a pro footballer before carving out a career as a nightclub promoter.

But he found fame on the ITV show The Only Way Is Essex and after years as a DJ on Heart FM he now jets across the globe as a TV presenter in the UK and the USA.

In contrast, 110,000 residents in Saldanha Bay live in abject poverty, amid rocketing levels of drug abuse, murder and sex attacks.

For most of the children there is a 6pm curfew – but they lie in bed each night with the sound of gunfire crackling outside. Mark went on: “I watched my family go through business struggles as I grew up and things that I thought were really hard. I would get down when I saw my mum or my dad down. But I look at these kids and their dad has been shot and killed and their mum is a drug addict and they don’t have a bed or home. I look back and think, ‘I had absolutely nothing to worry about’. Watching film and footage, it feels a million miles away.

“But when you meet them they are so close to us, they love their mum, dad, brothers and sisters the way I do. These people are the same as us. They have just got such unfortunate lives.”

In Middelpos Safe Park, Mark played footie with local kids and shared laughs with youngsters as they daubed his Unicef T-shirt with hand paint.

They were joyous moments and proof of the charity’s good work.

One teenager benefiting is Phila Cetywayo, 17, who was just six when his father was killed.

Mark added: “Phila still doesn’t know how his dad died. He had to be the man of the house at just six years old. They are growing up around drugs and crime in these townships. There are stray dogs, glass in the streets and there’s no place for the kids to play.

“But Phila has been able to come to the Unicef centre and now says he feels alive. It’s allowed him to make up for the childhood he lost. He can have friends and it can take him away from the seriousness of life and the dangers he faces.

“I loved playing with the kids so much, their energy was just incredible. They were smiling. But when you walk out of the safe park into the townships you can tell how hard that must be for them. It’s heartbreaking. They live in tarpaulin homes with bits of metal, some of them are the size of garden sheds.

“I met a family where a mum was living with her four children. I’ve got four brothers and sisters and we grew up in a four-bedroom house.

“It sounds selfish but when we became teenagers and my sister was a year older than me and my brother was 18 months younger than me, it was quite cramped.

“Looking back, how selfish was I to feel like that? These kids in South Africa live in a house the size of my bedroom with four of them and their mum.

“I don’t know how they possibly slept or what they slept on.”

Mark will join celebs and ex-football heroes in Soccer Aid at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge ground next Sunday. Over 12 years the project has raised £30million to help children affected by natural disasters, war, hunger and disease.

Mark said: “Unicef is helping townships and places where children don’t have places to play. That’s what Soccer Aid is all about this year.”

• Watch Soccer Aid for Unicef on Sunday June 16 live at 6.30pm on ITV and STV. To donate visit socceraid.org.uk

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