VOLUNTEERS are needed to help families with seriously ill children.

Charities Rainbow Trust and Jessie May have teamed up for a new project in Swindon and are appealing for help.

Project manager Rachel Stewart, who works for Rainbow Trust, said: “It’s a pilot project and a partnership project.

“Jessie May is a hospice at home service. They started out in Bristol but they’ve spread their wings and have now started to establish a base in Swindon.

“Rainbow Trust is about supporting families who have a terminally ill child or a child who has a life-threatening condition. We deal with children and young people aged up to nineteen.

“Our approach is very much a whole family approach. It’s about social palliative care – not so much the medical side because our staff are not nurse-trained.

“It’s more about signposting and supporting the family.”

Rainbow Trust’s work covers everything from simple emotional support to taking the siblings of an ill child for days out when their parents don’t have time.

“It’s trying to help them to cope with their situation in a good way and move forward,” Rachel added.

“Jessie May have medically trained staff and focus solely on the child who is ill, so we complement one another. That’s why it is a good partnership.”

The project needs extra people to help out, and no special qualifications are necessary.

Rachel said: “It’s very practical. It could be housework – ironing, cleaning, cooking, gardening or perhaps some DIY if they have the skill – or things like looking after the brothers and sisters of the child.

“It can also be ad hoc volunteering. Some people are not available on a regular basis but can offer a skill such as gardening, say, and we could call them in to tidy up someone’s garden as an ad hoc thing. If somebody wants to volunteer but can’t commit to a regular slot we can still take them on.

“At the moment, for example, we have a family whose regular volunteer has fallen ill, so even having someone step in with a situation like that would be very helpful.

“It’s about the small things that make a really big difference. Just doing a few small practical things that may not seem massively important can get a family back to feeling they’re coping when they felt they were overwhelmed.”

Volunteers will be asked to take part in a three-session training course which begins today and will be held at Hop, Skip and Jump in Shaw Ridge.

Further information is available from Rachel at rachel.stewart@rainbowtrust.org.uk and on 07535 250785.