On World Food Day, too, Jan says, we should reflect on those numbers and the human suffering behind them, recognise hunger as a critical problem and do something to solve it.

“I always thought the Prime Minister was keen on putting investment into international development, but you know he’s not that hot on hunger which is becoming a worse problem all the time.

“The figures about world hunger are scary. About a billion children are going to bed hungry every night. There is plenty of food in the world to feed all humans, but it is unevenly distributed.”

Last year, Jan travelled to Kenya with ActionAid to investigate how serious food shortages and the global crisis are affecting more and more families in poor communities.

She saw how the prolonged effect of droughts in the north of the country continue to destroy the pasture for livestock, while water levels are low or non-existent.

“I saw people trying to farm maize that only came up to our knees, it was completely wasted. The price of food is something we complain about, but for those at the cutting edge, a bag of grain goes from 50 cents to a dollar and something they can’t even think about buying.

“It’s hard to explain. Yes, people here are having to make decisions about cutting corners, but for people there it’s about a mother making the decision about which child to give food to that day, the one who is ill or the one who is healthy. It is often the women who are the last to eat and they are the most vulnerable because the men have gone off to find pasture for the cattle.

“The women are left to do what they can, it breaks your heart.

“I saw this little boy in a watering hole full of disgusting muddy, cow-pee filled water; I saw a calf and a boy both trying to suck milk from a cow and fighting for the milk.

“ActionAid is trying to change things, by making farming sustainable by putting water pipelines in place; helping the people to help themselves.”

Jan also has her own personal challenges to face.

She is considering writing another show after admitting to being “so proud” of the current one which, even at 51, she says, she wasn’t sure if she had the confidence to write.

“I would also love to do a bit of drama, a play in the theatre, maybe. I’m never one to shirk a challenge.

“I have done a few new things over the last few years that have really challenged me and sometimes I think ‘Why am I doing this?’ but you have to keep doing that.

“And I like working for ActionAid because it makes me feel involved in the world and that I’m giving something back.”