Sophie's Legacy: Charlotte Fairall invited to Macmillan coffee afternoon at 10 Downing Street along with Duncan James and Denise Van Outen

Charlotte Fairall, the founder of Sophie’s Legacy, spent an afternoon at 10 Downing Street as part of the ‘Macmillan coffee morning’ charity day.

The dedicated founder started Sophie’s Legacy after her beloved daughter, Sophie Fairall, sadly passed away after battling with a rare type of cancer, rhabdomyosarcoma, for almost a year.

Sophie spent a lot of time in hospital having to endure gruelling and tiresome treatment and she wanted to make sure that other children had better experiences whilst in hospital and she made her mum promise to fight for a number of changes.

Since Sophie’s funeral, Charlotte, her family and hundreds of people across the city have been battling to raise awareness of childhood cancer and the desperate improvements that need to be made.

Sophie’s Legacy has grown tremendously and last week Charlotte represented the charity at 10 Downing Street, along with the likes of Duncan James, Denise Van Outen and a number of other cancer charities – however Sophie’s Legacy was the only charity for children going through cancer.

Charlotte said: “It really sums up the position we are in – It shows that we are making some sort of impact to be invited to an event like that.

"It was really good going and seeing what it was like and having that opportunity. You don’t get an opportunity like that every day.”

The coffee afternoon gave charities the opportunity to speak about what they are fighting for and what change needs to happen.

SEE ALSO: Sophie's Legacy has achieved great things since establishment a year ago following the death of Sophie Fairall

She said that she has ‘absolutely no idea’ how she was invited to the coffee afternoon but that it is an ‘opportunity’ that she had to make the most of.

Charlotte has continuously been fighting, with the help of Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage, for change and part of the change involves having better play facilities for children in hospital, better food for children and their parents in hospital and to an increase in funding.

So far, the charity has helped make massive improvements for parents in hospitals by providing a bag full of essentials if a child is taken into hospital suddenly and they are also seeing improvements on the food that is on offer.

Charlotte said: “For me, it just feels like we have been doing this for two years and I don’t feel like we are close to achieving what we want to yet but we are definitely making a difference and making strides forward especially with the food.”

The charity is also currently taking ‘strides’ in pushing for play to be prioritised in hospitals for children receiving care and they are working with the NHS to put forward a new plan to make changes for the first time in nearly 15 years.

Charlotte added: "We have created a national task force and it has pulled everyone together. Everyone from Starlight which is the leading charity for play in hospitals to other organisations like the Royal College of Nursing to the NHS.

"We are still flying that flag as much as we can to say that more needs to be done.”