"You wouldn't think there was anything wrong with him."

On the return leg of my morning run last week I stopped for a breather in the square at the west end of Gt.Ormond Street.

I saw a couple having a fag in the recess of the entrance of a building. They had a wheelie case with them. As I drew alongside I saw that they had a small boy of no more than two sitting in his buggy with his toy Grilla - both a responsible distance away further up the ramp. A smiley, cute, flaxen-haired mop-top.

I stopped to say hello.

One is used to seeing anxious parents in that part of London and so I asked if their son was going to be a patient at the hospital. They told me that he had kidney stones and would be going under the knife later that morning; that they were from, Thirsk, North Yorkshire; and that they had travelled down the previous evening - hence the case.

So there they were, far away from home, puffing away and occasionally betraying the depths of their anxiousness by dint of the looks they flashed at each other and the lip-biting looks they both directed at their son. He, of course, was totally unconcerned.

"You wouldn't think there was anything wrong with him," said mum. I said that he was in the best possible place and that he would be fine because of it. They agreed and the sharp intake of breath that accompanied dad's reply was very tangible indeed. So having blown a kiss to the little chap and having said goodbye to the parents, I went on my way.

How much trust can a brand inspire? Where else are perception and reality so well realized?

Few are unaware of the hospital, what it stands for and the groundbreaking and record-breaking GOSH appeal, with which I'm happy to say I have a connection. The late, great CDP created the brand identity and advertising campaign and we, The Fine White Line, worked with our then parent company on 'thank you' materials when the appeal reached its target of £42m within two years of its launch.

But as fantastic and successful as the 'crying child' logo has been, I've always felt that there was something wrong with him. Because it's never the children who cry. It's everyone else around them.