...or at least helps to, with big donation

Rhod Gilbert has donated thousands of pounds that he earned from a sell-out gig to a cancer charity – all to appease a feisty audience.

He made the generous gesture after the audience at Reading’s Hexagon Theatre ribbed him for rescheduling this week’s show from October so he could film a TV show.

He told the Reading Post: ‘They were giving me a hard time in a joking way. You could tell there was an issue, so I said, “Look, let’s nip this in the bud, you’re getting your money back”, and they cheered.

‘By the end of the gig I said, “Look I don’t suppose some of you want your money back, why don’t we give it to charity?”’

He asked for ideas, and a woman suggested said Berkshire Cancer Centre. Gibert asked: ‘Do you work there?’ and she replied: ‘No, they cured me’.

‘It was one of those American melodrama sentimental moments. Everybody wowed and cheered,’ Gilbert told the BBC.

His donation is estimated to be worth more than £10,000.

Mark Foulkes, acting operations manager at the centre, said: ‘This is a fantastic piece of news. It must be really unusual to have a top entertainer in effect working for nothing – I’d love to get some more calls like this!’

Published: 28 Jan 2011