Rainbow Trust Children's Charity  

HCSA Charity of the Year 2026

Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity supports families who have a child aged 0-18 years with a life threatening or terminal illness.

Serious childhood illness can happen to anyone. Families facing this reality are everywhere; every culture, every background, every community. And when it does, they need more than medical care.

About Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity

For 40 years, Rainbow Trust has stood alongside families facing the unimaginable, caring for a terminally ill child. In the darkest and most uncertain moments of their lives Rainbow Trust has been a lifeline, offering not just practical help but deep emotional support that wraps around the entire family.

Rainbow Trust pairs each family with an expert Family Support Worker who enables them to make the most of time together, giving them practical and emotional support, whenever they need it, for as long as is needed.

Our support is flexible, responsive and built around the unique needs of each child and their loved ones. From hospital visits and school runs to sitting in silence or holding space for grief, Rainbow Trust is there in homes, in hospitals, and in hearts across the country. For more information, visit www.rainbowtrust.org.uk

Meet Bea

Bea was rushed to A&E with heart failure when she was 15 months old. She would remain there for 14 months attached to a mechanical heart (Berlin Heart), which kept her alive while she waited for a suitable heart donor.

After that first night in A&E, Bea’s mum, Cheryl, did not return home for 16 weeks. She stayed in hospital accommodation to be close to Bea, while Terry, Bea’s dad, would go home at 7pm and return at 7am.

A hospital social worker referred Bea’s family to Rainbow Trust and Family Support Worker, Monica, started working with the family in Spring 2022.

Cheryl and Terry said: “Monica’s support has been invaluable. She has been spot on with all of us in different ways. She was able to come into hospital and the bond she built with Bea was incredible. She is like family. We wouldn’t have coped without Rainbow Trust. When all is overwhelming, impossible to manage, feeling that there is no light, a Family Support Worker like Monica can help.” 

Read Bea's full story here.

Making a difference

Your donations will help open windows of support for seriously ill children and their families, ensuring they receive the care, compassion and help they urgently need.

The support offered is hugely varied and depends on the needs of the family. It can include:

• listening to a family’s fears and anxieties • helping to explain illnesses, diagnoses and treatments • keeping a seriously ill child company during hospital stays • driving families to medical appointments to help save time and money • organising fun activities to help sick children, their brothers and sisters • support through bereavement and grief.

The impact of the support offered is always significant, and with the support from HCSA, Rainbow Trust can ensure that no family faces serious childhood illness alone. 

Donating any amount over the year really adds up. Your contributions make an impact:

£32 would pay for an hour’s practical and emotional support for a family caring for a seriously ill child, helping them make the most of their precious time.

£112 pays for half a day of support for a frightened and confused sibling.

£768 could fund six months of weekly bereavement support for a family. The support is from an expert Family Support Worker who has often known the family from diagnosis to bereavement. This continuity is invaluable.

£2,000 is the average cost of support for a family with a seriously ill child for a year. 

Rainbow Trust receives no government funding and so we rely on partnerships like this one with HCSA. Thank you for helping us to make a difference.

Initiatives for 2026

In 2026, Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity proudly celebrates 40 years of transforming lives, that's four decades of providing vital emotional and practical support to families with a seriously ill child.

We are excited to tell HCSA more about our work and look forward to attending key events throughout the year.

Jenny is your primary contact and if you would like to have a chat about ways you can support Rainbow Trust in this milestone year as HCSA Members, please do reach out to jenny.evans@rainbowtrust.org.uk – Tel: 01372 220016.