BRITISH actress Jenny Agutter visited Brentor-based charity CHICKS on Sunday after attending a special film screening of one of her early films in Tavistock the night before in aid of the charity.

Miss Agutter, who starred in The Railway Children and appears in the popular TV series 'Call the Midwife' spent the morning chatting to staff and children from CHICKS and visitors from the local area at the charity's Moorland Retreat, playing football and bouncing on trampolines.

Miss Agutter has been a patron of CHICKS, which provides free respite breaks for disadvantaged children from across the UK, for many years. She has visited the charity's retreat in Cornwall but this was her first visit to the charity's Devon retreat.

She said: 'Being here has given me a sense of what it must be like for a child coming to CHICKS and how exciting it must be for them.

'On my way here I saw long horn cattle outside and I actually shrieked with delight.  It must be wonderful for the children coming to a place like this.

'I have so many wonderful memories of childhood holidays. Growing up, we spent a lot of time doing things together as a family. We went abroad to beautiful places like Cyprus and went on camping trips.

'It's incredible how many children in this country don't have a break or a holiday. They can come from backgrounds of abuse and neglect, broken homes and care and just don't have the opportunity to enjoy being children. Childhood is such an important time – it's precious. At CHICKS, they can be children again, and not only for one week, but time and again as they can return year after year.'

The evening before her visit, Miss Agutter attended a special screening of her spy thriller film, The Riddle of the Sands, at Tavistock College in aid of CHICKS where she also took part in a question and answer session.

The evening was organised by the film producer Drummond Challis who lives at Gulworthy and is a great supporter of CHICKS and other local charities.

Speaking of seeing the film for the first time in 15 years she said: 'It sparked a lot of memories that I thought were lost. Seeing the film again reminded me of all the beautiful places we went to and how much fun we had filming...the film was beautifully shot and after all this time, it still didn't feel dated which was great.'

Azita Shamsolahi from CHICKS said: 'Jenny has been a patron of CHICKS for many years and is a big supporter of our work with disadvantaged children.

'We were delighted that she was able to take time out of her busy schedule to visit our Moorland Retreat and to attend the fundraising event the evening before.

'From playing football with the children and bouncing on trampolines to making speeches and signing autographs, Jenny really did it all this weekend and helped raise much needed funds and awareness for CHICKS.

'We can't thank her enough for her continued support which helps us to reach out to even more disadvantaged children from across the country.'

Since its inception in 1992, CHICKS has provided over 12,000 disadvantaged children with a much needed respite break.

Each year it relies on hundreds of volunteers to make the breaks possible and is funded solely by voluntary donations.