ALMOST 300 people will be boarding a West Somerset Railway steam train on a journey that will culminate in the world premiere of a film – in aid of a cancer charity Hope for Tomorrow.

On Saturday, May 18, an expected ten-coach steam train including the Quantock Belle dining coaches will travel from Bishops Lydeard to Minehead for the premiere of ‘Chance Encounter’.

It is a gentle love story about a young couple who meet on a train on the Devon and Somerset Railway. The film features drone footage of what 1950s’ travellers would have seen during their journey, stations and images of the West Somerset Railway line.

The project involved steam railway experts and enthusiasts, local script writer and production director Lynn Pearson, and Wiltshire-based film makers Angela and Roger Calcutt.

Its cast are members of the Minehead-based Barnstormers theatre group, whose chairman until her death on February 16 was Hilary May, a Hope for Tomorrow ambassador.

The film is the result of an idea developed by Geoffrey Bray, executive chairman of Corsham-based fleet management company Fleet Service Great Britain and a patron of Hope for Tomorrow, and the charity’s founder, Christine Mills, who died last year.

Geoffrey said: “We discussed the idea of making a short fund-raising documentary about a long-abandoned railway line. While a documentary would have been extremely interesting, we decided to go further and make a film by recreating a 1950s journey.”

During the train journey, passengers will be able to have lunch and tea prepared and cooked by chefs from Claire’s Kitchen, based in Wootton Courtenay, and Hywel Jones, the Michelin-starred executive chef at Lucknam Park Hotel and Spa.

Hope for Tomorrow is dedicated to bringing cancer treatment closer to patients’ homes by providing a Mobile Cancer Care Unit (MCCU), previously known as a Mobile Chemotherapy Unit, to every oncology centre within the UK.

Full story and ticket information in tomorrow’s Free Press.