'WE'RE JUST TRYING TO MAKE A BAD SITUATION BETTER'

Actress Sarah Parish on her charity work with husband James Murray and the lasting legacy of their late baby daughter Ella-Jayne

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Sarah Parish has just completed a five-hour road trip from Cornwall following a “nice little three-day break” with her actor husband James Murray and some close pals — a refreshing pause in a life running at full pelt.

Sarah, 57, has spent the last decade juggling two remarkably different careers: the unpredictable but creatively rewarding world of acting and what she calls the “grounding” reality of running a children’s charity born from personal tragedy.

In January 2009, Sarah and James, 50, lost their eight-month-old daughter Ella-Jayne to congenital heart failure after she was born with rare genetic disorder Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome. Five years later, they founded The Murray Parish Trust and raised over £5 million for Southampton Children’s Hospital, where Ella-Jayne spent most of her short life.

This year, rebranded as Inspire This, the charity now focuses on closing what Sarah describes as a “real gap” in support for the mental health of seriously ill children and their families. Sarah and James both received MBEs in July in honour of their charity work.

"For a child in hospital who can't get out of bed, there isn't a lot to do apart from watching telly and scrolling on your phone, so an intervention needed to happen," Sarah says. She and James are on a mission to reach every seriously ill child in the UK by 2035, by providing everything from drama classes, yoga and music workshops to comforting spaces in paediatric units where parents can process the unthinkable.

"If your child passes away, there are rooms in hospitals where you can stay with the child for a bit before you say goodbye," Sarah explains, recalling her own memory in such a space after her baby daughter lost her fight for life. "It was incredibly depressing. It was a very bare, depressing room and it just doesn't make your life any better at all.