A POTENTIAL star of the future is appealing for help before money worries stop him taking up a stage school place for the second year running.

Jackie-Ross Lavender, from West Moors, needs £12,150 a year, plus living costs, for his musical theatre degree at London’s Arts Education School.

Determined not to let a lack of cash hold him back again, the 20-year-old is planning to put on an old-fashioned cabaret show to raise funds.

Jackie-Ross, who’s working at a restaurant to save up money, said: “I’ve auditioned three times so when I couldn’t afford to go last year I was really upset. A couple of days before term was about to start I got a lovely email saying they really wanted me and would let me defer, which they’ve never done before in the history of the school.”

The show, which takes place at Ferndown Village Hall in June, will be his first in more than two years, and will include music by Cole Porter, Gershwin and Andrew Lloyd-Weber, plus Broadway and Disney hits.

Former QE School pupil Jackie-Ross, whose mum Keran is a dancer, first got the showbiz bug aged 13. His dream role is to play the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera.

“There is something about being on stage,” he says.

“It makes you feel emancipated and any inhibitions of life just go. It’s just an unbelievable and incredible feeling.”

After dropping out of an inferior but cheaper stage school, Jackie-Ross had all but given up on his dreams.

Then, working front of house at Jersey Boys in the West End, star Summer Strallen inspired him to give it another go.

“I would see all these Arts Ed graduates and people in between jobs coming in and talking about what auditions they’d been to,” Jackie-Ross, of Bridges Close, said.

“Summer just put me back on my feet to do what I needed to do and reaudition.”

An Evening With Jackie-Ross Lavender and Guests will feature BBC Coming of Age star Bernadette Bangura and Joe Tracini, who plays Dennis in Hollyoaks.