MOVIE star Tom Hardy felt a 400-mile round trip from London by road in his £85,000 sports car to help raise cash for the Lindsey Lodge Hospice was well worth the effort.

And he helped raise £725 for the charity's coffers after fans entered a raffle to win a lunch date with the rising Hollywood star.

The 32-year-old London-born actor said: "I have friends and family who have suffered from cancer so I have a great amount of respect for the work done by the hospice staff".

Tom visited North Lincolnshire yesterday having just finished filming a new $200-million dollar movie called Inception with Leonardo Di Caprio and Michael Caine in Hollywood.

The contest raised £725 – including a £250 bid from an admirer in the US.

After mingling with fans and shoppers at the Trent Valley Farmers' Market at the Stephen H Smith Garden Centre, Gunness, he settled down for lunch with his three guests, Sonia Marshall, Andrea Newton and Sam Thompson.

The three Scunthorpe diners were delighted to learn Tom would be flying out to Australia in April 2010 to take over the role of Mad Max from Mel Gibson in the fourth film of the series, called Fury Road.

"It is a big challenge to take over a role made famous by Mel Gibson, but I shall be looking to put a new spin on the character," he told the Telegraph.

Tom had previously starred in the movie Bronson where he first met and befriended Scunthorpe businessman Mark Fish, 46, who invited him to meet the market traders and shoppers and the hospice patients staff and patients yesterday.

He laughed: "I got Mark a small role in the movie and he was awful!

"I am hoping he will be able to fly out to Australia and play a role in Mad Max to make amends."

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