ACTOR Robert Carlyle has taken time out of his hectic schedule promoting T2: Trainspotting to support children's charity Seamab.

Robert shared his childhood memories as part of Seamab’s Pocket Money Campaign, to raise funds and awareness of the charity’s work with some of Scotland's most vulnerable children.

He said: "My early childhood years were very poor. Money was tight and 'pocket money' non-existent. I had heard of it, but there was no one I knew who actually got it.

"Things changed a little for my father and I when I was around nine or 10 and I can remember the very first time my dad gave me something to spend on a Saturday. It was either two shillings or half a crown, around 10-15p nowadays.

“I thought I was rich and spent it on a comic, a packet of Polo Mints and a packet of crisps.

"I got the same amount every week intermittently over the next few years and I always bought the same thing. I would read the comic over and over, eat all of the crisps very slowly and half of the mints, saving the other half for the rest of the week when I would have one a day till the next Saturday came around.”

Seamab is based at Rumbling Bridge in Perthshire. For more than 28 years it has been caring for and educating children with complex needs, following experiences of abuse, neglect, trauma and loss.

The charity launched Pocket Money Stories as a major awareness and fundraising campaign to help improve the facilities at its school and in the three bungalows where the children live with their carers.

The campaign encourages the public to join Pocket Money Campaign by visiting Seamab's website at seamab.org.uk/pocketmoney to share their pocket money memories and donate small change to ‘sea change’.

Susie Williamson, fundraising manager at Seamab, said: "It means so much to a small charity like Seamab to have the support of a huge star like Robert and we can’t thank him enough for taking the time to share such intimate childhood memories with us.

"The donations of what is small change for the average adult will help us to provide the 'sea change' in the lives of children who come to Seamab. We want to give them the chance to heal, grow and learn and set them on a path towards a happier, healthier future.”