NATASCHA McElhone could be forgiven for taking it easy this year. After all, The Truman Show star is still coming to terms with the tragic death of her surgeon husband, Martin Kelly, in May of last year after he suffered a massive and totally unexpected heart attack at their London home while McElhone was filming in the US.

At the time she was pregnant with their third child, and starring in the hit Holly­wood show Californication with David Duchovny.

One can only imagine the kind of heartache she went through during this time, but right now McElhone seems to have put her melancholy carefully to one side, and comes across as an upbeat, enthusiastic woman, and someone clearly on a mission.

That mission is supporting Pampers and UNICEF in their ‘Gift of Life’ campaign, which aims to elimi­nate maternal and newborn tetanus by 2012. Asked why she agreed to front this campaign McElhone says: “Well, basically it’s such a simple solution to a problem that is so widespread. It’s shocking to think that every year 128,000 mothers and babies die from something that is completely preventable.”

How the campaign works is essentially by donat­ing tetanus vaccines to the less industrialised world. Since the campaign’s inception in 2006, Irish mums have been responsible for donating almost 3.5 mil­lion tetanus vaccines worldwide.

As part of her involvement, McElhone has trav­elled to Angola in Africa to see for herself the good work the Pampers/UNICEF campaign is doing there. However, this has certainly not been her first foray into charity work.

“I suppose, like most people, I’ve always been affected by human plight, and the endeavour to overcome it,” she says of why she is drawn to this particular type of challenge.

Did her own position as the mother of three young children spur her on? “Well yes, of course, if you are in the privileged position of having enough money to bring your kids up healthily and you’re able to educate them, then you are desperate to spread that good fortune. And when this opportunity came along I was delighted to get involved.”

McElhone says that she is very conscious that her children Theodore (nine), Otis (six) and Rex (11 months) are brought up to be socially aware. “I sup­pose that’s one of the biggest battles when you’re bringing up kids who are fairly protected from some of the realities other people have to confront. It’s incumbent on you to make them aware that these things exist outside the home, and also that, when the time comes, they can put something back into society. It’s just social responsibility. I’m actually beginning to notice it in them already.”

Given their parents’ commitment to charity work, it’s not surprising that McElhone’s children are dev­eloping a social conscience. Their late father, who was a renowned plastic surgeon, set up the charity Facing the World, which brings children from third-world countries with cranio-facial deformities over to England for treatment. Since his death, McElhone has been continuing his charity work.

“The children come over to my house and my kids will have tea with them and play with them. So from that perspective they’re pretty involved.”

Having gone through what she has in the past 18 months – losing her husband, giving birth, holding down a part in a hit Hollywood series – it only seems fair to ask how she manages to cope with everything.

“I think in such situations something always has to give, and in my case I have a very minimal social life, almost non-existent actually. Oh, and I get very little sleep.”

This, one presumes, is down to the presence of little Rex, and I ask her if he’s sleeping through the night yet.

“We’re just getting to that stage at the moment, and I have to say it’s very exciting,” she laughs.

Finally, we turn to McElhone’s Irish connections. Though her own accent is pure cut-glass British, her mum is actually from Donegal. “I used to visit Donegal a lot when I was a kid,” she recalls. And how about the persistent rumour that she dabbled in Irish dancing as a child?

“Yes, it’s true. And I still do it whenever I get the chance!” she laughs.

It’s a funny image: this beautiful Hollywood act­ress dancing a jig. But having spoken to the woman, and having got a momentary glimpse of her energy and joie de vivre, it actually makes perfect sense.

During this November and December, for every Pam­pers product purchased with the ‘1 Pack = 1 Vaccine’ logo, Pampers will provide UNICEF with the funding for one life-saving tetanus vaccine to help protect a mother and baby in need. To find out more about the Pampers/UNICEF Gift of Life campaign, go to www. pampers.ie or www.unicef.ie.

- Bernice Mulligan