Date published: 14 June 2015 by Anna Jackson

This Father’s Day I am supporting Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity’s ‘Don’t forget Dad’ campaign, to honour all the dads across England who have a life threatened or terminally ill child, to increase the amount of support available to them.

When a family is faced with having a child who is terminally ill, every member of the family is placed under unimaginable pressure. Fathers are quite often the invisible member of the family in these situations as mums arm themselves for the battles ahead, grandparents rally to help siblings and care teams gather around the sick child in hospital and at home.

The strength, selflessness and courage these men show every day makes them truly remarkable. So my message to those dads is this:

‘You are amazing, and you deserve this special day to celebrate fatherhood and recognise all that you have achieved in supporting your family through this time. You are not forgotten, your hard work and the emotional burden you tirelessly carry does not go unnoticed.’

To help Rainbow Trust support more dads with emotional and practical support donate online at rainbowtrust.org.uk/donate or call 01372 220086.

Rupert Penry Jones