If I see a film that involves Autism I will try and watch it as my girls have Autism and I like to see if there are any tips or anything at all that could help with our lives. More often than not however the films or programmes are really not that great or representative of hardly any person with Autism that I know. Many years ago now, however, I watched a fabulous movie called Snow Cake. Not to give away too much of the plot, it involved a man that was on a trip and ended up meeting a young lady called Vivienne and circumstances saw him going to meet her mother called Linda who is a High Functioning Autistic lady. I enjoyed the film very much and a huge factor in that was because it starred my favourite actor, Alan Rickman. How I adore that man!!

Today I found out the devastating news that this fantastic actor and man has sadly passed away due to cancer. I have spent so many years watching his films, joining fan groups and finding out all I can about him that today it feels as if I have lost a friend. He is such a talented actor with so many different roles from hairdresser in Blow Dry, to his humorous part in Dogma to his bad guy parts in Die Hard, Robin Hood and of course Harry Potter. And who else can compare to that velvet voice!!!

It also shows how equal we all are in the eyes of cancer. It doesn't matter who a person is and fame, riches or poverty matter not at all to it. I hope by the times my children are parents or grandparents no one else will be writing about that horrid disease taking the life far too soon of anybody else.