The Jessie May Trust
Helping families make the most of their precious time. We are a Bristol based children's charity that provide regular respite care to terminally ill children in Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset. All of the children we look after will sadly not live beyond the age of 19. Yet, our nurses provide a vital lifeline to families- giving regular practical and emotional support to parents, using specialist toys to bring fun into nursing, and supporting families through bereavement after sadly losing a child. We are unique, as we are the only organisation in our local area that provides regular respite care from specialist nurses to families in their own homes. Together, we can help families make the most of the precious time they have.

The Rainbow Centre for Childen
Using the words of Tolkeins Lord of the Rings, her late daughters favourite film, on e of our clients described The Rainbow Centre as a "light in a dark place when all other lights go out" please help us to keep that light shining for families at a time when they need it most. The Rainbow Centre for Children is a charity for children and their families from Bristol and the surrounding area including Somerset, South Wales and Gloucestershire. We help families deal with the pain, grief, anger and sadness that can be caused by the death or life threatening illness of a child or parent and the impact that has on individual family members as well as the family as a whole. Families come to us not only because someone has died from an illness but also as a result of road traffic accidents, suicide or murder. We offer art, play or music therapy to children, as these non-verbal therapies are a valuable means of expressing emotions when words simply can’t be found, counselling to older children if they prefer it to the non-verbal therapies, as well as to adults as a couple or individual, and homoeopathy for the whole family to help relieve both the side effects of conventional medicine, or the physical symptoms of grief or simply to keep a carer healthy so they have the strength to continue to look after their loved ones. Each therapy session lasts for 50 minutes, and the children or their parents / carers come at the same time each week so they build up a relationship and trust with our therapists. All the therapy we provide is free of charge and we support families for as long as they need our help. Each therapy session costs The Rainbow Centre £30 a session and we rely entirely on voluntary donations for our existence. We expect the running costs of the Centre to be £270,000 for the coming year.

Childrens Hospice South West
At Children’s Hospice South West we help and support children and their families who are living with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions and we are the only organisation in the South West to provide vital hospice care to these families. Some families come to us for palliative care, some for emergency care and many for planned respite and a rare opportunity for a break away. But there’s more to it than that. We provide a loving and caring place for every member of the families who stay with us. A place where everyone can begin to forget their worries for a while, be a family again and find expert help and support in facing an uncertain future. Our services are free to the families who need us because we believe that nothing should get in the way of very sick children receiving the very best care. So, with little government funding, we rely on the generosity of our supporters to deliver our promise to ‘make the most of short and precious lives’. Children’s Hospice South West has two purpose-built hospices in the South West. Little Bridge House in North Devon and Charlton Farm in North Somerset. A third special home from home for life-limited children in Cornwall and Plymouth, is due to open in 2011 called Little Harbour.