A FAMILY who have dedicated more than a decade to fundraising after their son’s autism diagnosis have been left speechless after being gifted the a holiday on a national TV show.

Dawn Avery, alongside her husband Keith and sons Aston and Aaron have raised hundreds of thousands for a variety of charities including UK Autism as well as community group Heart of Pitsea.

Keith, 60, was also recently diagnosed with prostate cancer and is undergoing radiotherapy however the family have continued to fundraise throughout his treatment.

The family keep up their own charity - Team Avery - following Aston’s autism diagnosis and have taken on countless fundraising challenges since.

In honour of their dedication, they were selected among 411 “unsung heroes” to be in the audience on ITV’s Saturday Night Takeaway where they were told they had won a stunning holiday and met presenters Ant and Dec following the show.

Dawn Avery, 56, said: “We were gobsmacked, this has come at the best time for us.

“We had no tips or ideas whatsoever, one man we work with nominated us without us knowing and we received a call from ITV and told them we had raised a total of £90,000 for charities in the last year.

“ITV has never handpicked a live audience; this was the first time they had done that and there were 411 members each with their own stories.

“We had incredible seats when they revealed it and Ant and Dec stayed out and thanked us, they made us feel extra special.

“We just like to give and what is funny is Aston’s project, the Pamper Project, with our charity Team Avery, is about rewarding unsung heroes.

“We are normally the ones gifting, we fundraised in the last year for a Halloween disco event, which raised £14,000 for Anna Kennedy Online, the Reece Hawley Foundation and Southend prostate cancer support unit.”

Dawn added that the family has been recently faced with immense challenges due to Keith undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.

Now, they’re looking forward to celebrating on the special getaway.

“Keith has had 20 days of radiotherapy, we didn’t actually know but the treatment is the last bit, so this couldn’t have come at a better time with all that Aston and our other son, Aaron, have had to deal with,” Dawn said.