Our beautiful daughter Charlotte was born in August 2020 and was like any other other baby, extremely cute, slept occasionally, loved to eat, and we were completely overwhelmed with love for her. However our exciting new world was turned upside down two months later when we took Charlotte to the doctor. She had become agitated a lot of late, and a few short hours after that first check up we were shocked to find out that she had a brain tumour. Charlotte was rushed for surgery the next day to remove as much of the tumour as the doctors could, but it was already too big and too entwined within her brain to be removed through surgery alone, and given her young age any radiation treatment was a huge risk as well. The tumour was later confirmed to be an AT/RT, a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer that would be terminal for our baby a few months later as she passed away peacefully in our home in January.

This all happened like a whirlwind for our small family and although Charlotte got amazing care while she was in the hospital in Prague, we understandably struggled to process what was happening. We contacted the Rainbow Trust for some support more out of hope than expectation and were blown away by the speedy offer of regular contact with a family support worker and the willingness to work around our location out in Prague, relying on zoom and phone calls. The care wasn't just limited to us either, with the Rainbow Trust team providing support to our family and friends as well, something that meant a lot to us as we were unable to be with them due to travel restrictions in place at the time.

We were just so amazed by the incredible job the charity does that we wanted to give something back, and this is one small way that we felt we could do it. We believe that every family that finds themselves in a similar situation to what we've been through deserves the same level of care we received from the team at Rainbow Trust, so please dig deep and help to ensure that this happens!

To find out more about what the Rainbow Trust do and the families they support, please take a few minutes to watch the below videos:

Making Every Moment Count

Pandemic Pressures