Two and a half years ago, comedian Henry Churney heard devastating news: a close friend’s son had taken his own life, alongside two other young people in the same week.

Instead of staying on the sidelines, Henry turned to the one tool he knew best — stand-up comedy — and founded Laugh For Life Comedy CIC.

The idea was simple: a five-week course that takes people from their first nervous steps in a classroom to a professional stage, helping them shape the hardest parts of their lives into a stand-up set.

What started as one modest course has grown into around fifteen, supporting vulnerable adults across the Liverpool City Region through social prescribing partnerships with organisations like Care Merseyside.

Along the way, participants have found more than confidence — many describe a lasting community of “Comedy Creatives” that outlasts the course itself.

Why does it work? Because turning a painful story into a punchline changes who’s in control of it. Instead of being defined by what happened to them, participants decide what’s funny, what’s poignant, and what an audience needs to hear.

And when a room laughs with you instead of pitying you, that’s a different kind of support altogether.

The results have shown up on some big stages — sell-out nights at the Epstein Theatre, Buxton Fringe, and now, this week, Edinburgh Fringe once again, with a group of Liverpool participants performing far from home for the first time.

Comedy won’t fix everything. But for everyone who’s stood on one of those stages and heard a room laugh with them, it’s clearly been enough to change something important.

Huge congratulations to Henry and the whole Laugh For Life Comedy team.