VALENTINE’S Day is the perfect opportunity to appreciate the support you receive from your loved ones. Commercial gifts aside, it helps you say those things that otherwise might go unspoken in the midst of everyday life. For couples caring for seriously ill children this is more important than ever.

Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity supports over 1,900 families who are caring for a child with a life threatening or terminal illness. The pressure this brings to parents is unimaginable as they support each other through an onslaught of practical and emotional challenges.

Rainbow Trust helps the whole family in whatever way it can. It might be looking after the sick child to enable parents to take a break and enjoy a calm meal together, or helping parents talk about what is happening to their family and the impact this is having on them as individuals and as a couple.

This Valentine’s Day I am asking readers to make a donation to our charity, which relies almost entirely on voluntary donations.

Please donate £5 - the cost of a Valentine’s box of chocolates – to help Rainbow Trust support even more couples and give them the break they so desperately need on 14 February?

To find out more about Rainbow Trust and make a Valentine’s donation visit www.rainbowtrust.org.uk/donate or call 01372 363438.

Anne Harris

Director of Care at Rainbow Trust