Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity

25 Years of Caring Support

When foster carer Bernadette Cleary was asked to help a close friend whose 12-year-old daughter Rachel had terminal cancer, she didn’t hesitate to step in and support the family. Bernadette helped Rachel achieve her main wish which was to die at home. That was in 1981 and word quickly spread about the support Bernadette could offer to other families in similar circumstances. Requests for Bernadette’s help grew so much that in 1986 she set up Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity.

An amazing 25 years on from that has seen Bernadette receive an OBE and the charity grow massively to its current size … supporting 1,170 families in crisis each year in England.

Rainbow Trust provides expert social palliative care to families when their child has a life threatening or terminal illness. Offering emotional and practical support, assistance is available for families 24 hours a day. Individually tailored, high quality care is offered from diagnosis through to treatment and, should a family become bereaved, the charity will continue to support them for as long as they are needed.

The support Rainbow Trust gives is invaluable to families like the Whites. Shona White was aged just six and a half when doctors found a brain tumour at the back of her head. Rainbow Trust Family Support Worker Val supported Shona whilst she was in hospital receiving chemotherapy and helped bring some fun back into her life. Sadly, after nine months in remission, doctors found three more tumours. Within seven months Shona had passed away. One year later, Val continues to support the family. As Shona’s mum explains, “We don’t really feel the need to go to another bereavement service. We’d have to go through Shona’s whole story with someone who didn’t know her.”

Rainbow Trust has Family Support Workers across England and relies almost entirely on voluntary donations and fundraising to support them. This means the charity hosts a lot of big and small scale events all over the country and in their 25th Anniversary Year, they are holding some very special events. Last October their Silver Jubilee Ball took place in the Savoy Hotel in Central London. The event was hosted by Julian Fellowes and attended by the cast of Downton Abbey and stars from Made in Chelsea. It included an auction by Jeffrey Archer, which raised over £92,000, contributing to the £210,000 total amount raised.

As well as hosting its own events, Rainbow Trust also has places in many existing events such as the Brighton and London Marathons on the 15th and 22nd of April respectively, a climb Kilimanjaro challenge on the 13th of January and a Trek Peru Challenge on the 19th of April.

At present, the charity can only help one in ten families who need support; its vision is that one day all terminally ill children and their families will have access to a Rainbow Trust Family Support Worker. Fundraising from these events makes a vital contribution towards achieving this.

If you would like to know more about Rainbow Trust or about any of their events Tel: 01372 363438.
Visit: www.rainbowtrust.org.uk

Pictures show (top to bottom):

Sue Pont, a Rainbow Trust supporter on a Trek Peru Challenge.

Rainbow Trust runners after completing the Brighton Marathon.

Zoe Boyle (Downton Abbey’s Lavinia Swire), Bernadette Cleary and Laura Carmichael (Downton Abbey’s Lady Edith Crawley) at the Silver Jubilee Ball.

Bernadette Cleary (founder of Rainbow Trust) receiving her OBE.

Shona White and her sister Iona – both supported by Rainbow Trust Family Support Worker Val.