IF the phrase “here’s one I made earlier” resonates with you, we probably have a slice of childhood nostalgia in common.

I was among the last of the nation’s children to have the choice of just four terrestrial channels and as for the internet… dial-up made its way into our home by my late teens.

So imagine my delight when I had the chance not just to meet Stuart Miles but to reminisce with him; an actual Blue Peter presenter from the Nineties.

My happy memories went farther than just the after-school ritual of Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Being a creative child I actually took the time to send pictures and letters into Blue Peter meaning I would qualify for my own badge in the post.

I’ve kept the badges and of course it would only have been right and proper to wear one when I met Stuart who, not only laughed with me about his best Blue Peter bits but wanted to back a very important campaign for Colchester charity Lepra, which he first began supporting when he was two years into his five-year presenting stint.

Stuart, now 49, said: “In 1996 I was part of the Blue Peter presenting team which included an appeal on behalf of Lepra to raise money using ‘Bring and Buy Sales’. Children could apply for the packs to host the sales.”

Stuart visited Brazil and India and showed young viewers that leprosy was a curable disease but people there weren’t able to access a cure for various reasons.

He added: “All the children really committed to it because we featured other children suffering from leprosy, which can cause disabilities and disfigurements.

“There was this massive reaction and people in Colchester who have lived here for many years may remember the people here at the charity were so inundated with donations for Bring and Buy Sales they had to open another area at the Army Barracks.”

The appeal, fronted by Stuart, was so successful, it raised a record £2.8million.

He added: “When I knew Blue Peter’s 60th birthday was coming up this year, I had already been involved with Lepra over the years.

“So I thought was a great opportunity to look back and remind people of the good work that happened.”

Stuart had the chance to revisit India this summer.

There he visited Hyderabad, where the Blue Peter Health and Research Centre was built in response to the appeal in 1999.

“When I got back it was really emotional,” said Stuart, who lives in London.

“It reminded you how successful Blue Peter was and was an amazing force for good it was at the time.

“Now it is so different - how we connected with children in that way – now there are iPads etc.

“The moment when it [the emotion] struck me was when I walked into the centre’s records room. There was a record of all the patients they have seen and what they have learned from their research.

“In this room are hundreds and hundreds of files. You walked in there, and without this centre being built none of that research would have existed. These people certainly wouldn’t have received the help from the centre, who are specialists in treating leprosy.”

Stuart also found it emotional to see leprosy patients at morning clinics.

“To think there is still work to do and some of the stigma is still there, and after all these years why is that still happening?”

Another stand out moment for Stuart was when he met a woman with leprosy.

“I told her she was beautiful and she burst into tears. She had been made to feel like an outcast – she had lost her job and her husband had divorced her,” he said.

Thanks to Lepra, the woman was receiving counselling as another of its common side effects can include mental health issues.

Lepra, based in Middleborough, Colchester, has been working to beat leprosy for almost 95 years.

Many people still don’t realise it’s been curable, with antibiotics, since the 1980s.

Sufferers usually start off with a patch of discoloured skin which left untreated leads to further nerve damage and paralysis.

How the condition transmitted is still unknown. The Blue Peter Health and Research Centre has helped to treat and care for nearly four million people affected by leprosy, lymphatic filariasis and associated health conditions since 1999.

So there is no wonder the now-radio presenter holds Lepra close to his heart along with so many more light-hearted memories from his Blue Peter years.

He references the show’s iconic drum roll at the start of its theme tune and how in his first weeks on the job aged 25, the reality sunk in that he was on a television programme he’d also grown up watching.

“My stomach fell through the floor. It is really scary. I was so terrified for the first few weeks.

“It had audiences of three to four million when I started.”

Of course a central feature of the live - and therefore at times predictable - show was its pets.

Stuart added: “We always used to squabble over who had the cat on their lap as its claws would dig in. The dog, Bonnie, was much simpler to control – she had a dog handler.

“In order to encourage Bonnie to be near us when the show started she would throw dog biscuits across the studio.

“They would count us into the show after the credits. Just as they went live this massive dog biscuit hit me in the face – this Bonio whacked me.”

Cooking was another favourite element to the programme, which today is aired on CBBC.

“One day we forgot to put the lid on properly on one of the liquidisers. I went to switch it on and the whole load shot over the top.

“But afterwards you think that is really good and funny and they are moments children like.

“Live TV is brilliant because people are willing things to go wrong.”Stuart left Blue Peter suddenly in 1999 and at the time it was reported he had declared it was out of with the then-current generation of children and he also felt that the sacking of co-presenter Richard Bacon had not been handled well.

But Stuart said he was “stitched up” and left on good terms. There is no doubt Stuart holds its nostalgia and wholesome values close to his heart as we turn to talking about the rise of social media and how it has changed the way children are entertained.

“When you think about Blue Peter, parents would come home, their children would do their homework and then sit and watch Blue Peter and parents would know it was safe and they were going to learn something and they could switch off. Now their children might be shut in a room on an iPad.”

But he accepts “we are where we are” with social media and key to children’s online safety is parents being aware of what they are looking at.

Our chat concludes but not before we laugh as we both talk about my badge I’m sporting and I admit that I can’t quite remember what I did to earn it.

But that’s irrelevant - I was a ten year-old who belonged to that force for good.

Lepra is currently running its Socks and Sandals campaign in which schools, workplaces and community groups are encouraged to wear them both for a day and donate £3 to Lepra.

More information is at www.lepra.org.uk/socks-and-sandals.