This year, instead of our usual Legal Engine Christmas drinks, we're raising money for three charities that have been there for two families in our community.

In September, my friend Claire Rason lost her 17-year-old son, Nicolas, to cancer. My friend Helen Burness has spent nearly three months in hospital with her daughter, Marigold.

Claire and Helen are two of the strongest people I know. With three young children of my own, I can't begin to imagine what they've been through. What I do know is that, on the hardest days, there were people and places that made a real difference to them.

So on Thursday 26 November, Bird & Bird are kindly hosting our Christmas fundraiser: a quiz, a raffle and an appeal to law firms to Give an Hour. Everything raised will be shared between:

Ronald McDonald House, which gives families a place to stay close to the hospital, so they can be near their child

Young Lives vs Cancer, which supports children and young people with cancer, and their families

St George's Hospital Charity, whose appeal is transforming the children's wards at St George's, which care for around 4,000 children and young people a year

Three ways to help

1. Enter a quiz team. Pull together a team of up to 6 from your firm and email me at lee@legalengine.co.uk.

2. Give an Hour. Ask your firm to donate the equivalent of one hour of a senior partner's time.

3. Donate a raffle prize. We're on the lookout for weird and wonderful prizes for the raffle on the night, so let us know what you can offer.

And whether you're joining us or can't make it, you can donate right here. Every donation, big or small, helps families going through the unimaginable.

Thank you.

Lee