Singer actor and I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! star Jason Donovan got a special vote of thanks when he appeared at Dorchester Abbey's carol service in aid of the Oxford Children's Hospital on Thursday night.

The jet-lagged star who had just returned from Australia to his home in Oxfordshire said he is giving the money made from his appearance in the ITV1 reality show to the hospital - and that could be as much as £200,000.

He got to the service just as it was starting and stayed to do one reading. Dressed in a grey suit and black tie, the star said in an interview outside the Abbey: "The I'm a Celebrity thing was a one-off - I won't do it again. It was great fun but extremely tiring."

About his support for the hospital, he said: "Anything to help children gets my vote - the hospital is a marvellous thing and I'm glad to help."

He lives in Oxfordshire with his partner Angela and their two children Jemma, six, and Zac, five.

Jason joined impressionist Rory Bremner and radio stars Sue Lawley and Anne Atkins to give readings during the service which was led by the choir of New college, Oxford, conducted by Edward Higginbottom.

They chose poetry and prose on the Christmas theme by Dylan Thomas, Charles Dickens, Richmal Crompton, AA Milne, Ogden Nash, Joyce Grenfell, John Betjeman and Oscar Wilde.

The event attracted 700 people paying between £60 and £20 for a ticket.

Committee member Caroline Compston, the inspiration behind the concert, said originally 600 tickets were printed but they were snapped up so quickly another 100 were printed and they went within a short time.

The audience included Tony Baldry MP, Hugo Brunner, the Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, and Shamus Donald, managing director of Newsquest Oxfordshire, publishers of the Oxford Mail, The Oxford Times and the Herald series.