One month today, we will be taking Robbie to Heathrow to catch a flight to Miami and the start of his dream job.

Robbie is working two jobs, plus gigs where he can get them, and saving as much and as fast as he can, but there has been a lot of time pressure. The job offer was only a few weeks ago, with lots to do in the meantime, and the clock is ticking. After a stressful couple of weeks, ploughing through a mountain of paperwork, we are now in the frantic final dash.

He has just come back from a couple of days in London, where he managed to time two important tasks (almost) together, with a medical on Monday (at a facility specified by the company but at his own expense) and then on Tuesday an early morning trip to the US Embassy to deal with the visa application.

It is all now getting very real. As parents, we will cope with him being away for seven months - after all he was away at university for three years, and stayed away for a couple of years after graduation, but nevertheless we will naturally worry. Florida has recently undergone hurricane conditions, which naturally is unsettling for parents, knowing he will be there within a few weeks to start two months of training before setting sail.

As he travels off after training to locations we might struggle to find on a map, we will worry but will at the same time be pleased. He has strived for this for years. Three years at university, learning valuable skills, hundreds of performances, all over the country, countless auditions, all to get him to the point where he has been successful in obtaining a dream job.

As a family, we thank everyone who has helped him get to this point.