Film-making mother to stage show at theatre venue

A film-making mother who used jelly to help her son get over his chronic allergies is staging an artistic comeback.

Melanie Gow, 46, wrote and directed the cult film Intimate With a Stranger.

But after the birth of her son Ben, who suffered from chronic allergies, eczema and asthma, she had to leave her artistic career behind and become a full-time mum.

Melanie, of Bexley Street, Windsor, was told he would need an operation that might leave him deaf and with learning difficulties.

"I researched everything I could find out about his condition, every expert's view," she said.

"I ended up putting him on a diet of lamb, rice, apples and jelly with water.

"I got rid of all the soft toys in the house. In three months he was so much better he did not need the operation.

"Now he is 14, totally well and running a cross country."

Melanie, who has another son Harry, 10, wrote a book about her experiences called Toasters Don't Roast Chickens.

With Ben better she revived her artistic career, staging cultural events.

Her contribution to this year's Windsor Festival is a unique concept concert Kiss Me Goodbye - a study of love and how important timing can be.

The project started when Mel met local poet Jonathan Steffen, who judged the Berkshire poetry competition she organised.

At the same time she became a fan of singer Eleanore and her band The Lost, after seeing them perform at the Half Moon, Putney and listening to their album of love songs.

She found a busker called Daniel Waples who plays a rare instrument called the hang that is only made in Switzerland.

She has mixed all these elements in with the contemporary dance group 4Motion, who are based at Windsor's Firestation arts centre.

The resulting concept concert plays at Windsor's Theatre Royal on Friday, September 30.