Mum’s List is a film every parent should see

“KISS the boys two times after I have gone, find four-leaf clovers, go diving in the Red Sea and roller-skate round a museum.”

Those were just some of the 79 wishes, instructions and dreams that mum-of-two Kate Greene left behind when she realised she wasn’t going to beat cancer.

Assembled on Post-it notes, texts and scraps of paper, her husband, Singe, gathered them up after her death at just 37 years old and formed them into a list for him and their two boys, Reef and Finn, to live their lives by.

Singe wrote an international bestselling book, Mum’s List, about his and Kate’s story. And now it has been turned into a film, starring Emilia Fox and Rafe Spall, which came out in cinemas this weekend.

“I was speaking to the boys about it and Reef, who is 12 now, said Kate would be really proud,” Singe said.

Rather than relocating the story to Hollywood, it was filmed in the family’s home town of Clevedon, North Somerset, and directed by a fellow resident, Niall Johnson.

“All the locations in the film are actually places Kate and I went. It was a little weird sometimes because it was just so close to the mark,” continued Singe, a former paramedic.

“We are a close-knit community – everyone knows everyone – and any time we needed an extra, someone was always ready to step in.”

Kate and Singe met when she was just 14 and they married in 1996. They were besotted with each other and lived for the moment, going on adventure holidays to New Zealand and Africa.

But life changed when Reef was diagnosed with rhabdoid sarcoma, a rare cancer.

The shock sent Kate into labour seven weeks early, which meant the couple spent Christmas looking at both of their kids hooked up to life-saving machines.

They both pulled through, but just a few weeks later insurance underwriter Kate was diagnosed with breast cancer.

She underwent an operation and chemotherapy and seemed to be getting over the worst of it, but 18 months later her health went downhill.

It was in her final weeks that Kate compiled her list.

Singe and the boys have since roller-skated inside the National Museum in London, gone diving in the Red Sea, discovered a four-leaf clover and had many more adventures.

And Singe always kisses Reef and Finn twice – one from Dad and one from Mum.

Kate’s personality, Singe says, is all through the list and little things like eating her favourite biscuit, an orange Club, perk the boys up when they feel down. Another of Kate’s instructions was for her sons to grow up to respect women and 50-year-old Singe is delighted at the “men” the boys are becoming.

“While they won’t see the film for a few years, they did receive a very special letter last week,” he said.

“Kate wrote it on the night she died, sealed it and told me to give it to them when it was the right time. With all of the publicity for the film, now seemed right.

“I hadn’t read the letter until then, but it brought home how much we love each other and it emphasised that we should support one another.”

Another instruction on Kate’s list was for Singe to find another woman to settle down with.

“Every relationship I’ve had has been very precious and I’ve always punched above my weight. But could I find another diamond like Kate? “I have. We’re keeping it low-key but we’re a very happy family.“

The film is likely to trigger interest in the re-launched book, and a support programme called Mum’s List Legacy, set up to help people around the world cope with bereavement, is being rolled out.

“A friend of mine said even though it’s a film that women will want to see, it’s a movie every dad should watch too,” added Singe.

“Many have also said they will buy a notebook to write their own list and to make the most of life.”

That might just be Kate’s greatest legacy of all.

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