Amelia Brown, 25, is a family support worker with the Rainbow Trust, a charity which helps people whose children have life-threatening or terminal illnesses. She appears in an awareness-raising video, A Day With Amelia, which can be found on the charity’s website, rainbowtrust.org.uk. Amelia lives near Royal Wootton Bassett and has a boyfriend and a toddler son

“From my point of view,” said Amelia Brown, “children are the most precious and amazing people.

“They look at the world so differently to the way adults do. They’re so innocent and so pure. I love interacting with them, playing with them.

“But no child should ever be poorly; it’s so unfair. Obviously, I can’t make them better but with Rainbow Trust hopefully I can make the time that they do have more fun.

“It’s different kinds of support – practical and emotional.

“It could be sitting beside a child who is in a hospital bed while they’re having treatment. It might be being with them at home, it could be taking the siblings out to the park. The siblings might not be getting a lot of time because the parents are with the poorly child and a lot of the focus is on the poorly child, so the siblings can sometimes feel left out.

“It’s not one thing, it’s lots of different little things, and the work that I do is different for every family. No family is the same – the treatment may be different, the conditions are different and it’s what the families need and want at that time that hopefully I can provide for them.

“If there was no money in the world, this is the kind of job I’d do for free, just because it’s a privilege to support families. It’s wonderful that they let us in to be part of their journey.”

Rainbow Trust was founded 30 years ago by a woman called Bernadette Cleary, who was asked for help by a friend whose daughter had terminal cancer and wanted to die at home rather than in a hospital.

The charity which grew from that act of humanity currently supports more than 1,900 families across the country through nine teams of family support workers. Rainbow Trust is funded almost completely by the public.

Amelia’s team covers the Swindon, Bristol and Oxford areas.

“When I left school I wasn’t sure whether to go down the nursing route or the performing arts route.

“I did a performing arts degree at Bath Spa University after college. Then I worked as a children’s entertainer for four years and had my own child.

“I knew I wanted to work with children and found myself going back to the nursing and caring side of things.

“I started working for Rainbow Trust almost a year ago. Before that I was working for the NHS overnight, providing respite care for poorly children.

“One of the children I was supporting overnight was also supported by Rainbow Trust. Although I loved the medical side of things working for the NHS overnight, I missed that interaction with the children, so Rainbow Trust was amazing for me.

“I just applied for a job.”

Amelia is ever conscious that she’s with families undergoing experiences most of us couldn’t conceive of.

“You can’t even imagine what these families are going through. Even for myself – and I’m right there with them – it’s so hard to understand the kind of emotions they’re feeling.

“If the child has a terminal condition and there is no hope, the parents are just riding it out and enjoying the time they’ve got with that child. You never expect your child to die before you. That’s not the way it should happen and no way would anyone think that was going to happen when they had a child.

“But families are absolutely amazing at coping. It just becomes the new normal for them, and the resilience is just amazing and so inspiring to be a part of.

“The love for their child is even more highlighted because they haven’t got as long with them as, maybe, other people take for granted.”

The feelings of the children themselves depends on their age and diagnosis.

“Young children often don’t realise what’s going on. They just know they’re poorly and they’ve got to have treatment or medication. I think for older children it becomes a lot more difficult because they’ve got that much greater level of understanding of what could happen and what is happening to them.

“If they don’t know what’s happening it’s often very difficult for them because they can see that their parents are upset. They’re getting all these emotions from their parents and they don’t understand it themselves. It’s a very difficult situation, especially for a child who doesn’t necessarily know fully what’s going on, or doesn’t have the comprehension.

“The majority have far more courage than I think I would have in that situation.”

Amelia is determined not just to do her work but also to do everything she can to raise awareness of the charity and encourage people to support it.

“There’s a certain number of families who are still waiting, or who haven’t got access to the support because of their location but has a poorly child.

“So Rainbow Trust’s mission, if you like, is to raise enough money to have enough family support workers to support every child across the UK who has a life-threatening or terminal illness.

“I’m the type of person that just puts my all in. I give everything, as much as I possibly can. You become part of these families’ lives.”