GRIEVING friends and relatives are planning a variety concert in memory of an aspiring actor who died suddenly at the age of 21.

Jack Lloyd, from Basildon, wrote, directed and starred in plays and had his own theatre group before he died after an accident in August.

Family and friends are now planning a variety concert to remember him in a way they think he would have loved.

School friend Sarah Morley, 21, of Medoc Close, Basildon, is one of a group of friends working with Jack’s family to organise the show.

She said: “He was always performing.

“We thought it would be best to organise a performance to remember him, because it’s something he would have liked the most.”

Family and friends have signed up to be part of the show and local bands have also been urged to get involved.

Miss Morley said: “We’re trying to get a really good show together.

“There’s a lot of good local bands who are going to play, and one of Jack’s best friends Daniel Steward is going to be the MC and he’s a bit of a comedian.”

Jack had fundraised for Great Ormond Street Hospital in his lifetime, and was planning a skydive.

Money raised through the variety concert will be divided between what Jack hoped to raise for the hospital and money for a bench with his name on it in Leigh, where family and friends could go to remember Jack.

Miss Morley said: “He loved the whole Southend and Leigh area, so we wanted to have it somewhere he would like.”

The show is at Basildon Lower Academy, where Jack was a pupil when it was the Chalvedon School. Tickets to the concert, on December 1 at 7pm, are £5 on the door.