Date published: 06 October 2020 by Digital Team

On Friday 5 October, we were thrilled to receive a grant of £81,583 from The National Lottery Community Support Fund, which will enable us to continue to provide vital support to 50 families in the North East of England and Cumbria who are caring for a seriously ill child over the next six months.

As well as having an enormous impact on our ability to raise the funds we need to provide services, the pandemic has brought even greater uncertainty to the lives of these families, when so much in their lives is already unknown.

When Banin's son, Zayd, was being treated for leukaemia, the family were assigned Family Support Worker, Sabrina. Of the support she received, Banin said:

We had no one – Zayd’s illness felt like we were at war. You never come back from that. We couldn’t have got through it without Sabrina and Rainbow Trust, and I will forever be grateful for their support.

Without Sabrina, Hamza [Zayd’s brother] would be in therapy and both he and Safina [Zayd’s sister] would have felt so neglected. She made them feel special again. She took Hamza for a bike ride which he was so excited about because we couldn’t go outside with Zayd.

These things are so simple, but they made such a difference to me and my mental health.

Thanks to the government and The National Lottery Community Support Fund, the funding Rainbow Trust has received will allow us to continue to support families with a seriously ill child in the North East and Cumbria, providing practical and emotional support to help families manage day to day, at a time when it is needed more than ever.