Dancer James Jordan is the latest celebrity to support an appeal to find missing Medway man Nigel Knights.

The Strictly Coming Dancing star has tweeted his support and encouarged others to do the same.

Mr Knights went missing a week ago today during a trip to the supermarket with his wife Sue.

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Tonight, his family and friends will gather for a vigil at 8pm - the time the 63-year-old walked out of Morrisons supermarket and disappeared.

A huge search and rescue operation has been taking place over the past week and officers have searched the River Medway, Ranscombe Farm Nature Reserve in Cuxton and woodland in Halling.

James Jordan, who lives in Maidstone, tweeted: "A friend of a friend has gone missing Please help by RT'ing."

It follows a tweet by One Direction star Louis Tomlinson yesterday.

He posted: "Really want to help this family get reunited with Nigel. Can we all help?" It's now been retweeted and liked thousands of times.

The candlelit vigil will be held at St Francis Church, Galahad Avenue, Strood, at 7.45pm tonight.

His family has made a heartfelt plea for his safe return, and revealed he had not been well lately.

They have also set up a Facebook page and said: “The vigil will give us an opportunity to gather our support and raise awareness for his safe return.

"Being able to pause, light a candle, and think about Nigel one week after he has disappeared will help us continue the journey together.

“We now need to concentrate on searching wooded areas, sheltered places like under bridges and in doorways, outhouses, sheds, churches and homeless hostels.

“The public are our biggest help now - someone has seen Nigel they just don’t know it yet. Thank you for your continued support.”

Mr Knights and his wife, Sue, lived in Cuxton for more than 30 years, before they moved to Lanzarote in 2015, had been staying at Allhallows caravan park after returning to Medway to attend a christening.

Speaking exclusively to KentOnline's sister paper the Medway Messenger, his stepdaughter, Nicola Martin, said: “We just want him to come home. He has not been himself recently and has lost a lot of weight.

“My mum was just picking something off the shelf and had turned her back on him for a moment and he was gone. CCTV at the store shows him walking out at 8pm.”

Medway Coastguard and the police have been carrying out extensive searches involving boats and helicopters.

Police have made repeated appeals for information, and Mr Knights’ family have printed off flyers and posters which they have been handing out to people in Strood.

Mrs Martin added: “We can’t thank the police enough. They started searching for him as soon as we called them.

“If anyone has seen him I would urge them to call the police number.

“We are hoping he’s just gone off for a long walk and has got a bit lost.

“We all miss him. He has no phone, no cash or anything on him, and it’s horrible to think he’s out there on his own.”

Mr Knights, who has two sons and four stepdaughters as well as five grandchildren, worked at Holmesdale School in Snodland as a special needs teaching assistant before taking early retirement in 2015.

Son Ben Knights, 32, said: “He’s had some problems for a few months now and has been trying to have treatment, but nothing seems to be working.

“We are worried for him and everyone is worried about it, we want him to be safe. He is very frail at the moment. He’s not been himself. It is horrible to think he’s not safe and lost and confused.”

Mr Knights is 5ft 7in, thin, with dark, greying hair. He was wearing a mauve sweatshirt and navy tracksuit bottoms with white stripes.

A police spokesman said: “While an extensive search has been carried out by Kent Police on the ground and in the air, and partner agencies including the Coastguard, Kent Search and Rescue and UK Rescue’s Air and Nautical Support, we have so far been unable to find Nigel.”

Anyone with information should contact police on 101, quoting reference 09*1319.