Comedian Arthur Smith has made an impassioned plea on national radio in a bid to encourage listeners to back a Chigwell charity.

The comic, who is long-serving vice-president of Revitalise, took to the airwaves for this week’s BBC Radio 4 appeal, urging others to pledge funds.

Revitalise runs Jubilee Lodge, in Chigwell High Road, which offers respite holidays for disabled people and their carers.

The centre provides 24-hour nursing care, catering for people with a wide range of disabilities, as well as excursions and other entertainment.

Explaining to Radio 4 listeners why he had come to back the charity, Mr Smith said: “After my father died, my mother, Hazel, became very lonely and rather fretful.

“Eventually began to feel the onset of dementia, a condition she had been terrified of happening to her, it happened to her mother.

“I became her carer for a while, which gave me an insight into what it is like to be a carer and how much hard work it can be.

“You can be doing it 24 hours a day, keeping your eye on someone.

“It was rather distressing and eventually we got some carers in to help her. My heart went out to those people and I realised what a hard job it is being a carer.

“That is why I have come to support Revitalise, which is a charity that gives respite care for carers and the people they care for.”

The comedian also told the story of Mavis and Colin Akrill, a couple who benefitted from a respite break at Jubilee Lodge in March this year.

Revitalise provides nearly 5,000 respite holidays every year to families at Jubilee Lodge and its two other centres in Southport and Southampton.

All the funds raised by the Radio 4 appeal will go towards the Revitalise Support Fund, which was established to help disabled people and carers in financial hardship take breaks with the charity.

For more information, visit: revitalise.org.uk.