Based over in Loughborough, Rainbows is the East Midlands’ only hospice for babies, children and young people.
An incredible charity that is supporting families through the hardest times, they help to create memories that families can treasure forever.
With Christmas approaching, a time to bring families together more than ever, we caught up with Rainbows to find out more about the important work they’re doing.
How would you introduce Rainbows to someone newly introduced to the charity?
The first thing I would say is that Rainbows isn’t like you may expect it to be. When we hear the word Hospice, we think of somewhere sad – but this isn’t Rainbows. Yes, there are sad moments but we’re about making memories, brighten short lives and provide a place for families to spend quality time together.
As the East Midlands’ only hospice for babies, children and young people, Rainbows cares for hundreds of families every year who have a child or young person with a serious or terminal illness that means that their lives will be shorter than most.
We support every child and young person to fulfil their potential, and help families make the most of every precious moment, while capturing memories and keepsakes to treasure.
We’re here for the whole family, offering comfort and compassion during tough times, providing the highest level of professional care until the end, and support after.
Simply put, we’re here to brighten short lives, and support families, wherever they are.
Tell us about some of the services you offer?
All our services are FREE for families to access and we care for the whole family; mums, dads, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles… and most importantly we provide care and support for babies, children and young people with serious and terminal conditions.
The care and services we offer are wide ranging and include:
- palliative care
- end of life care and bereavement support
- symptom management
- respite and short breaks
These are available in the Hospice, at home and in hospitals.
In addition, we also offer:
- physiotherapy
- hydrotherapy – with the Hospice having a hydrotherapy pool on site
- music therapy
- complementary therapy
- family support which sees our Family Support Workers and Nurses work alongside a family to identify their needs and how best to provide information and practical support that will really make a difference.
The best way to get a taste for what we do is to watch our short tour video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24_JbapfjGY&t) and to visit us on our Open Day in September.
What areas do you cover?
We cover the whole of the East Midlands, this includes Leicester/Leicestershire, Nottingham/Shire, Derby/Shire, Northampton and parts of Lincoln.
Our Hospice building is situated in Loughborough, but we also offer a Hospice at Home service as well as having Rainbows nurses in the Leicester Royal Infirmary and Nottingham Hospitals – with plans for more nurses in hospitals throughout the region.
How do people access the service?
We support children and young people who have a confirmed life-limiting or life-threatening condition. Children and young people can access Rainbows services if they:
- have a degenerative condition that will lead to their death before or during early adulthood;
- are currently palliative and/or are likely to die within 1 year or their medical team would not be surprised if they died within a year.;
- have a current oncology diagnosis and are receiving active treatment and/or are palliative and/or are likely to die in the next 1 year;
The service is offered to children and young people from birth – 25 years, living within the East Midlands. We are also able to support families antenatally.
Referrals can be made by anyone involved with the child and family, including the family themselves.
What makes Rainbows unique?
What makes us unique is that we are the only hospice for babies, children and young people with a serious or terminal condition in the East Midlands. We support families through the hardest of times, giving them a lifeline at an unimaginably difficult time. To provide these vital services, we need to raise the majority of our income through voluntary donations.
But Rainbows isn’t only about care at the end of life; our hospice is a place where families feel safe and at home, where they can spend quality time together enabling parents to be parents and not caregivers; where families can enjoy time together and do things which normally they wouldn’t be able to – such as going swimming in our hydrotherapy pool.
Who are your ambassadors locally?
We’re fortunate enough to have lots of incredible ambassadors in Leicester / Leicestershire alone, such as BBC Radio Leicester presenter Ady Dayman, actresses Rakhee Thakrar and Lydia Bewley, chef Kwoklyn Wan, The Duchess of Rutland and Sam Bailey who are all Patrons.
Other local ambassadors include Wes Morgan, Tom and Laura Hopper, Katie Boulter and Xia Brookside.
What events do you have coming up?
Runners, bakers and superheroes can unite when it comes to our events!
From world famous runs to Peak District walks, bake-athons and more, we have something for everyone, with events being added throughout the year. Some standouts include our Santa Runs (Loughborough or virtual), our Fireworks Spectacular at Leicester Racecourse and our Derby Cathedral Abseil. Plus we’ll be hosting an Open Day in September.
We’ve also got some exciting new events lined up for 2023, which we can’t quite reveal yet but keep an eye on www.rainbows.co.uk/events or sign up for our monthly eNewsletter to keep up to date with our events! Our team of Community Fundraisers are also on hand to support anyone who wants to do their own fundraising event – either in a school, local group or their place of work – simply get in touch, and we’ll offer support and advice.
How can people support Rainbows?
There are so many ways in which people can support us including:
- Donating good quality pre-loved items to one of our shops (we’ve got shops located in Blaby, Loughborough, Market Harborough and Melton Mowbray). They’re full of fantastic items from clothing to toys and games – something for everyone.
- Play our Rainbows Lottery. It’s £1 per week and there’s a weekly jackpot prize of £1,000 up for grabs. Oh, and we also have a rollover which can go up to £10,000.
- Take part in one of our events, or host your own and fundraise for Rainbows
- Share our social media posts and help us spread the word about Rainbows – who knows, by sharing one of our social posts, a family who could benefit from our services may find out about us!
- Make a cash donation – we appreciate times are tough, but it costs over £6m a year to keep our doors open, and the majority of this comes from donations of our fantastic supporters. Whatever you can donate will help to brighten short lives – and it would be great if you could become a regular donor too. £5 could fund our Play Team for fun and learning, using arts and crafts materials, while £60 could fund an hour session of Music Therapy
- Leave us a gift in your Will – this is a fantastic way to support us in years to come, and it won’t cost you anything now
- Get your company involved, we’d love to work with you – perhaps we could become your charity of the year?
Where can people find out more?
We’d love for people to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. We also have a YouTube channel where people can watch lots of fantastic videos, including behind the scenes videos.
Other ways to find out more (and keep up to date with Rainbows, our events, etc.) include signing up to our monthly eNewsletter and visiting our website!