Hi-5's Charli Robinson reveals the important job that made her 'bawl her eyes out'

There's nothing like the smile of a small child to help brighten your day. Charli Robinson sometimes collapses into floods of tears when it happens, though.

The Hi-5 star and Camp Quality ambassador, 45, has been working closely with children for decades. And though her days as the beaming, singing and dancing entertainer are over, she's determined to make a difference for Australian kids with cancer.

"Through Hi-5, we were in a wonderful position where we were able to brighten a lot of kids' days," she tells 9honey. "I can really see the difference [now] that it makes in the tragic journey they go through. It brings so much joy and happiness.

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"What an honour to be in that position where you can go in and make someone's day brighter."

Through working with the children's cancer charity Camp Quality, which helps sick kids and their families, Robinson is frequently still "in character" as Charli.

She says it's an endlessly rewarding experience, however since becoming a mum herself, her emotions are always bubbling at the surface.

"We would go into children's hospitals and I'd be holding a child with leukaemia, and I would want to bawl my eyes out," she explains.

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"They'd just be looking at me, so excited to meet me because they loved me in Hi-5, and their parents were smiling… the nurses would be smiling and all I wanted to do was cry.

"My throat was always so closed up, wanting to just bawl, and in the car ride I'd bawl my eyes out."

Robinson said she taught herself to be "stronger" and she'd be able to do the hospital visits without "losing" it. Since welcoming her two daughters, she's done a 180-degree turn.

"Whatever I had turned off is now hysterical… I do a lot of hosting and MC work, and if ever it's to do with children, I have to tell the audience, 'I'm so embarrassed, I'm a mum, I don't know if it ever turns off again'."

Charli left Hi-5 in 2008 after 10 years with the group. Of course, the role still follows her no matter how much time may pass.

Fortunately for the Getaway host, she embraces it.

"I have a four- and a five-year-old, and every dance school we have gone to, the dance class is still rocking the Hi-5 music - every one of them!" she laughs.

"Then, my little one just started prep this year, and their performance they do every year, regardless, is [the Hi-5 song] L.O.V.E. The music, I think, has transcended generations."

She also recalls having teenagers, even aged as old as 18 and 19, come up to her and ask for selfies as they recognise her from the show.

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"It makes all that hard work worth it when, all these years down the track, I can't go out without being recognised or if I'm on the phone, they'll recognise my voice."

Even Robinson's Instagram DMs are full of people with special requests for her to revisit some of their favourite Hi-5 songs.

"You'd be surprised, especially on social media, how many specific songs I get asked and I have to YouTube myself, because they're little singlets I did on my own segment and I can't remember them," she says.

"I put a lot of effort to make sure that everyone gets their request, my DMs are full of it."

The extra-special effort, however, goes into her work with charities like Camp Quality.

Robinson is calling on everyday Australians to step up and raise money for kids facing cancer this September for Camp Quality's Big Walk for Little Kids.

"Something I really like about Camp Quality, and this is in their slogan, is that fun and laughter is brought back," she says. "That's something they really focus on for the kids."

Charli is committed to doing 8000 steps per day for the month of September to raise money for Camp Quality.

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