Smile

Rainbow Trust Children's Charity provides practical and emotional support to families who have a child with a life threatening or terminal illness.

They support 1,000 families each year.

Their two respite houses in Surrey and Northumberland provide a break for the whole family, allowing them to spend precious time together as a family.

Rainbow Trust's Family Support Workers join the family in their own home and are there to provide whatever practical support is needed. They may attend hospital appointments with parents, sit by the bedside of the sick child to give parents a break and take worried siblings out for the day.

Rainbow Trust supports families for as long as they need it - from diagnosis, through the illness and beyond.

The Trust was founded by Bernadette Cleary, when she together with her husband and her three sons provided a temporary foster home to 53 children. She then set 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.

Help us to help the Rainbow Trust but supporting our Smile Appeal! There are many ways you can join in fundraising or just make a simple donation.

Find out more here.