‘MediCinema is part of my life,” says 12-year-old Lucas Rae-Shreenan. “It just takes me away from what else is happening.” Lucas has been going to screenings put on by the charity, which builds, installs and runs cinemas in hospitals, since before he could talk. His mother, Melanie, would pop him in the pram in front of the screen to get a break from the neonatal unit. On Sunday, that charity will receive the prestigious outstanding British contribution to cinema award at the Baftas.

MediCinema has helped Lucas – who spent a sizeable chunk of his childhood at the Glasgow’s royal hospital for children, after he was born with an extremely rare chromosome disorder that means he cannot eat or drink – to become a committed film fan.

He even made his own marmalade sandwich out of felt to complement his blue duffle coat costume for a special preview screening of Paddington in Peru last November, unaware that a surprise guest, Hugh Bonneville who plays Mr Brown, was making an appearance.

But for Lucas, the best bit about MediCinema is the volunteers who bring patients from the wards and keep them company at the screenings. “One person Billy is in his 80s and we’ve been friends for ages,” Lucas says. “He lets me help him with his jobs, he lets me take the register and take the tickets. Then we sit together and have a wee catch-up before the film starts.”

Last Monday at around 5.45pm, Billy Rodden and four other volunteers were waiting at the entrance to the purpose-built cinema, with rainbow-coloured seats and clear space at the front to park beds, wheelchairs and IV drips.

“The wee ’uns love it,” said Rodden, who has volunteered for the charity for 16 years. “You see the expression on their faces, especially the ones who are in hospital for months at a time, they get to do something normal for a few hours.”

As children and their carers began to arrive for the screening of the animated comedy caper Dog Man (based on Dav Pilkey’s hugely popular graphic novel series) Rodden strolled around the tiered seating, pausing for a high five here and there

The audience comprised all ages, stages of treatment and pyjama styles. Everything about the space replicated an ordinary cinema – comfy seats that may encourage a parent or two to nod off; the encompassing darkness, requiring volunteer ushers and the two attending nurses to use torches when assisting toilet visits; the surround sound; and the soundproofing to ensure that nearby wards are not disturbed.

Indeed, the only difference between this and a commercial screening is the absence of rustling of snack packets, a blanket policy so that those who are fasting or on restricted diets don’t feel left out.

Many of the youngsters are accompanied by their parents. As Melanie, Lucas’s mother, says: “The first time we went it was more of a lift for me.”

“But as the years went, the staff became his friends. They’ve known him since he was a baby and watched him grow up. They went through all his milestones with me.”

Lucas was also diagnosed with autism at the age of three. “Now the volunteers print out the timetable for him because he enjoys the routine. They take a lot of time with him and it breaks up his day”.

“Kids have their own rooms on the wards but can feel quite isolated,” says cinema manager Kate Thomson. “Here, they get to see other kids in hospital, some of them make friends and you can really tell it’s changed their day.”

The screenings also offer a chance for parents and patients’ siblings to be together as a family, says Thomson. There are private viewings for immunocompromised kids and teenagers can bring schoolfriends in to see a film ahead of its cinema release: “It makes them feel cool, which I’d imagine is not something they feel often in hospital.”

The idea for MediCinema came about in 1996, when founder Christine Hill was inspired after seeing nurses at St Thomas’ hospital in London wheeling patients outside in their beds to watch the boats go by on the River Thames.

The first MediCinema opened at St Thomas’ in 1999 and the most recent in Alder Hey in Liverpool last November. The charity now has six purpose-built hospital cinemas across England Wales and Scotland, with new MediCinemas soon to come to

Great Ormond Street in London and the Oxford Road campus of Manchester university NHS trust – the largest trust in the UK. The cinemas operate at no cost to the NHS and in partnership with local hospital charities. And MediCinema’s ambition is to become a national charity with their screens in every NHS region.

CEO Colin Lawrence hopes their “incredible” Bafta recognition will hasten that ambition. “It’s such a simple concept that we’re able to have a scalable impact in such a profound way for patients.”

“When you walk into MediCinema you don’t feel that you’re in a hospital any longer. You’re enjoying something which everybody in the outside world has access to and that’s a very empowering thing.”

“Not only does it bring all the wonder of film, taking you to a place that you might not be able to get to physically, but it diminishes stress, changes people’s moods and you can create connections with other parents or patients.”

Lawrence says that the non-medical volunteers who facilitate patients’ visits are just as vital to the whole experience as the hospital staff.

“You’ve got somebody who’s not part of the hospital environment, coming into your ward, talking to you about the film saying, ‘We can make this really easy for you’. That’s giving people a sense of agency, isn’t it? There’s a human to human conversation with somebody that sees you as another person, not as a bed number.”

That’s precisely the phrase that 27-year-old Claire Pitt Wigmore uses about her own experience of MediCinema at Guy’s and St Thomas’, where she received inpatient treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma for 12 weeks.

“It really became a lifeline for me. I wasn’t able to function as a normal human and at times I felt incredibly isolated, sad and angry,” says the guitar teacher and performer, who has been cancer free for 18 months.

On her first visit, she had anticipated “a few chairs and a projector. I didn’t expect to walk into a built-in Odeon.”

“The volunteers and staff got to know you on first-name terms and asked about your life outside of being in hospital. It was really reassuring to be known as Claire the person, an individual rather than a bed number.”

For Nathan Askew, chief nursing officer at Alder Hey, the charity allows staff to build a more relaxed relationship with patients as well as have some fun themselves. “It’s hard working for the NHS at times and this is such a lovely way to use your nursing skills. The children and their families see you in a different role to when you’re their allocated nurse on the ward, and it’s really a bit of a reprieve for everyone.”

“The beauty of MediCinema is that it can do so many different things,” says Askew, who has been working with the charity since it opened its cinema at St Thomas’. “For older patients, they’ll do the silver screenings, where you can see someone who’s quite confused with dementia have a period of relative calm through the experience of the film and music. Then there might be a screening for a group of young people who have got the same condition, like a stoma bag, which can be really difficult to talk about.”

“You can provide a really tailored experience, so maybe that’s somebody at the end of their life who can have their family around them to watch a movie. And at the other end of the scale you’ve got complete escapism. Film transcends all ages, all cultures, all backgrounds – it’s really powerful.”