JIMMY Edmonds an acclaimed filmmaker from Chalford Hill, Stroud was presented with a Churchill Medallion by photojournalist Nick Danziger at a prestigious award ceremony in London last Wednesday.

The medallion was awarded to Jimmy to mark the successful completion of his overseas research as a Churchill Fellow.

For his Fellowship, Jimmy and his partner Jane Harris travelled to the USA and Mexico to discover and film the many different ways bereaved parents respond to the death of a their child.

Jimmy and Jane’s own son Joshua died in a road accident in Vietnam in 2011 and their journey across the Americas was part homage to their son, part metaphor for their grief but importantly an opportunity to find out more about why in modern cultures while death will always make front page news, the personal experience of losing someone you love remains such a difficult subject of conversation.

On the way they met and filmed with 13 other families who had also lost a son or daughter.

Now their documentary A Love That Never Dies has been released to UK cinemas and Jane and Jimmy are currently touring the film across the country with screenings still to come in Oxford, Cardiff, Derby, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh Gloucester, Totnes and Truro.

Speaking about his fellowship, Jimmy said: “The travel grant we received from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust was fundamental in helping us turn our ideas into reality.

"To make a film about grief is something we never ever expected to do, and the whole process has been incredibly difficult both emotionally and practically.

"But by travelling abroad we could distance ourselves from the very British way of doing grief and we loved hearing so many stories of grief that refused social expectations about moving on or letting go.

"None of the parents were looking for some kind of closure after the death of their child – they were in fact embracing their grief, however painful, and discovering that it was giving them a whole new outlook on life.”

On returning to the UK Jane and Jimmy founded The Good Grief Project a bereavement charity dedicated to promoting grief as an on-going and active process with many creative opportunities.

They now continue to make films and run creative workshops and weekend retreats for those looking for new ways to express their grief.

To learn more about The Good Grief Project visit thegoodgriefproject.co.uk