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Alan Titchmarsh was left close to tears while interviewing the actor James Murray in a recent episode of his ITV show, Love Your Weekend.
Murray, who is best known for playing Prince Andrew in Netflix’s The Crown, was discussing the death of his late baby daughter, Ella-Jayne, who died at eight months old in January 2009, after being diagnosed with a congenital heart defect.
The actor and his wife, Piglets star Sarah Paris, subsequently tried to turn the upsetting events into a positive and started engaging in charity work in the months after Ella-Jayne’s death. The couple went to work at an orphanage in Camdobia before setting up their own philanthropic trust, which raises funds for paediatric emergency medicine in the south of England.
As Titschmarsh and Murray discussed the emotional events, the host looked teary-eyed as he told Murray: “You’ve done a heck of a lot of work for Southhampton hospital because of Ella-Jayne.
“You lost a child and you have raised millions, the two of you, with the Murray Parish Trust, for equipment for Southhampton Hospital. And that goes on, presumably, does it?”
Murray replied: “That keeps going on. We lost Ella-Jayne at the beginning of 2009 and we founded the charity a few years later.”
Reflecting on his charity work, Murray said that his and his wife’s foundation has raised approximately £5m for paediatric facilities across the south of England, predominantly for the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Southhampton Children’s Hospital – where Ella-Jayne spent almost half of her life.
Murray continued: “We set that charity up as lots of people do who have been through trauma, as a way of giving back and as a therapy, as displacement if you like of where to put your grief. And it just grew.”
Murray met his wife on the set of BBC’s 2002 hairdressing drama Cutting It. They married in 2007 and welcomed their daughter Nell in November 2009, nine months after Ella-Jayne died.
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Speaking to The Independent in 2019, Parish said she got through the grief of losing Ella-Jayne by slowing right down” and “taking it five minutes at a time”.
“It was the only way I could handle it. But your body and mind has an amazing way of recovering,” she said. “I think back and I can’t really emotionally connect to it any more.”
The actor previously told OK! Magazine that she continues to write Ella-Jayne a birthday card each year, which she keeps for her and Murray to cherish.
“Every year I write her a birthday card and keep it for us,” she said. “There are sad days but also happy days. We have a lot to be thankful for.”
Ella-Jayne was born prematurely when the doctors found an abnormality in her heart. For several months, she was kept in an intensive care unit as she received emergency operations to try and save her.
According to the NHS, Congenital heart disease is a general term for a range of birth defects that affect the normal way the heart works. It is one of the most common types of birth defect, and almost 1 in 100 babies are born in the UK with the condition before setting up their own philanthropic trust, which raises funds for paediatric emergency medicine in the south of England.
