It’s Saturday morning, and I’m hard at work filming. The project is a spoof 70s cop show. My co-actor Murad and I wear crazy wigs and shades. Jordan sits like some cool auteur in his director’s chair nodding, smiling and calling ‘action.’ Shaan is the first assistant, making everything run smoothly on set.

Only this isn’t a TV or film set. It’s Film Club at Richard House Children’s Hospice, and Jordan’s director’s chair has wheels and an electric motor.

If you, like me (and most of us I imagine), think of hospices as places full of gloom, grief and sadness, then you ought to experience Film Club. It’s run by Bernie Wighton, a devoted film buff. Bernie has decades of experience as a play and care worker. He also has passion, energy and enthusiasm and a desire to share that with Murad, Shaan, Jordan and many others like them – children and young people with severe illnesses and disabilities, who still want to learn and laugh and have fun.

I’ve come to the hospice, with my husband Phil and son Ollie, 17, to mark Children’s Hospice Week as part of my new role as an Ambassador for Together for Short Lives….read more here