GRAND Opera House pantomime star and assistant director Stuart Wade is looking to develop his charity work.

"I've got involved with the Afghan Trust charity over the last couple of years," says the former Emmerdale soap actor, whose role as Buttons in Cinderella in the York pantomime concluded last Sunday. "I've done quite a few charity events and met soldiers who have come back from Afghanistan with injuries, and I now have some ideas to put to a friend of mine on the trust board for further involvement and that is something I'd like to pursue."

Stuart has two brothers who are former soldiers who served in Ireland, while a late uncle was in the Army and another was in the RAF. "So I do have an affinity with the Armed Forces," he says. "Not to get politically minded, because I'm not political, but I'd like to do a couple of charity ideas in the year ahead, pulling in some of my 'celebrity' friends to get them involved.

"It's nice to be at that point in my career where I can say, 'enough of what I do, it's time to give something back'. That's something that sits well with me."