COMIC, actor, impressionist, singer and radio presenter Alfie Joey will draw on his creative skills to support a North East charity.

Mr Joey is also a professional artist and cartoonist, whose depictions of life in Tyneside and County Durham sell for high prices worldwide.

His next artistic project is the design and decoration of one of 70 sculptures which will form Elmer’s Great North Parade.

The free public art trail, which starts in August, will feature individually decorated statues of David McKee's popular children’s picture book character Elmer the Patchwork Elephant, across Tyne and Wear and follows 2016’s Great North Snowdogs trail.

The ten week parade has been organised by St Oswald’s Hospice, Wild in Art and Elmer publisher Andersen Press and will culminate in an auction of the statues in November.

Proceeds will go to St Oswald’s Children’s Hospice, which provides specialist care for North East children with incurable conditions and support for their loved ones.

Mr Joey, whose two children loved the Elmer books and took part in the Snowdogs trail, will set up his studio in the foyer of the BBC Radio headquarters at Newcastle’s Barrack Road, so fans and visitors can watch as his design comes to life.

He said: “I don’t want to give the game away too much about my design but it’s going to be very local to the North East and it will feature lots of famous faces. The real challenge will be transferring the design from the page on to my Elmer statue.”