We are proud to name Rainbow Trust as our charity of choice. They are a non-government funded organisation which relies on the support of businesses and the public to keep the charity afloat.
Bernadette Cleary, her husband and her three sons had provided a temporary foster home to 53 children before setting up Rainbow Trust in 1986.
The charity was established after Bernadette helped two close friends through the terminal illnesses of their children. From this, more requests for help followed and Bernadette supported more families, realising that the parents, brothers and sisters of a dying child are often forgotten and that someone needed to be there to support them.
By offering non-medical help Bernadette could provide a service that would aim to maintain a sense of normality, and keep families together through very traumatic times. It continues to be her vision for Rainbow Trust to extend this support to more families around the country.
10,000 families in England have a child with a terminal illness at any one time. Established in 1986, Rainbow Trust is a unique and special charity that provides practical and emotional support to families who are facing the unimaginable prospect of losing their child.
When there is a very sick child in a family, the pressures on their brothers and sisters can be great, and it is understandably very difficult for them to cope with. Siblings can feel angry, fearful and frightened as they see their sibling suffering. Whilst their sibling is sick all the attention of everyone that loves and cares for them is understandably focused on their sick brother or sister. This can make the siblings feel very isolated and as if their worlds have been turned upside down. This pressure and turmoil can last for many years.
Rainbow Trust’s Family Support Workers aim to respond to this by providing practical and emotional support to the whole family. By providing transport to take the siblings to and from school, to help with hospital visits and to take them on special outings when they need to have some fun, our Family Support Workers try to make the lives of the children they work with as ‘normal’ as possible. By running errands for the family such as picking up the weekly shopping or paying bills at the Post Office they aim to ensure that the little time families have to spend together is made as easy as possible.
Rainbow Trust supports families with a child up to the age of 18 helping them to maintain a sense of normality through very traumatic times. With less than 1% government funding, Rainbow Trust will rely on voluntary donations to raise the £4.2 million it will cost to support 1000 families, which is just 10% of those who really need our help.