ROSIE'S RAINBOW FUND
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Mission Statement
Rosie’s Rainbow Fund is a small charity set up in memory of 11-year-old Rosie Mayling, who died aged 11 of vasculitis in the John Radcliffe Children’s Hospital in Oxford. We support sick and disabled children in hospital, school and in the community. Our activities include: • Music therapy sessions at the John Radcliffe Children’s Hospital, Oxford; Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Bucks & the Royal Berks Hospital, Reading • Bereavement support for families after the loss of a child • Massage and aromatherapy for stressed parents of long-stay and terminally ill children • Music sessions for special-needs children in schools & centres around Berks, Bucks & Oxon • Purchasing equipment for disabled children in schools and respite centres • Paediatric Therapeutic Massage and Positive Touch Therapy for premature babies and seriously ill or disabled children; instruction in Paediatric Therapeutic Massage and Positive Touch Therapy for interested parents
About This Cause
The inspiration behind Rosie’s Rainbow Fund’s children’s charity was a little girl named Rosie Mayling. Rosie was clever talented, kind, funny, mischievous, generous and exceptionally musical. Born into a theatrical family, Rosie had a love of all the performing arts. Rosie was very concerned with taking action when something needed to be done—at 9 years of age, she wrote, directed, and staged a musical to raise funds for a young friend with Rhett Syndrome in need of a wheelchair. Rosie’s motto was “Don’t just talk about it, do it!” In December 2002 Rosie became ill and was diagnosed with vasculitis, a rare and devastating illness affecting the blood vessels. Rosie was discharged from hospital at the end of April 2003 and six days later she suffered a fatal pulmonary haemorrhage and died. During her treatment at The John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford Rosie expressed a wish to raise money for the new children’s hospital and to help other children undergoing lengthy hospital stays. It became increasingly apparent to Rosie how difficult, lonely and stressful it can be spending months in hospital, and she told her mum Carolyn that when she got better she wanted to do something to help. Though Rosie tragically did not live long enough to fulfill that desire, our charity works hard to “not just talk about it, but do it” in Rosie’s memory. Our charity was founded by Carolyn Mayling, Rosie’s mum. Carolyn saw the truth in young Rosie’s words about the need to do something to help children like Rosie in hospital, but she also recognised that supports for parents like herself had been lacking during Rosie’s illness. Wanting to fulfill Rosie’s wish and also to help ensure supports were in place in the future for families who would undergo what her own family had faced, Carolyn decided to found Rosie’s Rainbow Fund in Rosie’s memory to achieve these goals, and works hard to ensure our services are available in hospitals, special-needs schools, and the community throughout the Thames Valley area. Rosie’s Rainbow Fund recognises the physical, emotional, and spiritual impact that a child or young person’s serious or life-limiting illness or disability has on the individual child as well as on the family unit. We offer a multi-pronged approach to supporting children and families throughout every phase of coping with serious illness and disability in hospital, schools, & the community. In hospital, our charity provides music, art, and play therapy to life-limited and disabled children as a means of aiding in medical treatment, offering pain relief, encouraging emotional and physical expression, and allowing children the chance to “just be children” and have fun. Where appropriate, siblings are also included in sessions, allowing for a sense of normalcy and sibling interaction often lost when a child is separated from the family unit in hospital. At the same time, we recognize the unique difficulties faced by parents in hospital—they spend long, worrying hours by their child’s bedsides, having to be strong for their child, often separated from spouses or other children during the hospital stay. For some parents, the ability to work may become an issue. Through therapeutic aromatherapy massage and pastoral care sessions with our licenced nurse, midwife, and massage therapist Amanda Tibbels, we offer parents a chance for a break, to have a moment of respite, to talk about their feelings, and to restore themselves to be able to be more effective carers and parents. Finally, our charity offers supports to parents and families in the event of a child’s death through bereavement counselling before, during, and after a child’s passing. In addition to counselling sessions, we have conducted workshops for bereaved parents, including our very popular “One Year On” workshops, where parents who have lost a child have the opportunity to meet as a group with our counsellors and share their unique experiences with others who understand.