When our young son died, we decided to build him a boat

Wild Cat Island had always held a special place in the imagination of our son, so after his funeral we chose to try and send him on one last journey

Famously, Windermere is the setting of the children’s adventure story Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome, and it’s also one of our son Torin’s favourite books. It appealed to his own love of adventure, mischief and all things piratical. Along with his little sister, Lowri, we embarked upon many canoe adventures together on the River Dart in the summer months, spotting wildlife and playing pirates with other boats. Torin – which means chief – was always ship’s captain, of course, because the children from the story often tussled for the position. Torin also loved practical jokes. His favourite was the whoopee cushion, normally hidden very indiscreetly on a seat where you would be ordered to sit down with great anticipation and stifled giggling.

Torin was born with a rare form of life-limiting, mitochondrial disease. After many lengthy admissions to Bristol Children’s hospital over several years, he developed some close relationships with its staff. One of the closest was with Katie, a brilliant play therapist who, when Torin was 11, asked me if she could apply to a charity that could send a family like ours on an all-expenses-paid trip of a lifetime together. She said: “Ask him where he would go if he could go anywhere in the world.”