Rainbows Open Day is a success

Around 1,000 people joined in with our 20^th birthday celebrations when they visited the hospice’s open day on Saturday 20^th September.

Visitors attended our annual Open Day to learn more about the work carried out to provide care and support to children and young people with life-limited illnesses and their families.

As we are celebrating 20 years of care, there was a special birthday cake made by Fiona Cairns who shot to fame after bakery Fiona Cairns Ltd was commissioned to make the royal wedding cake for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Rainbows Patron Willie Thorne presented our volunteers with special awards and people also toured the special facilities at the hospice, as well as browsing at stalls and enjoying a BBQ and refreshments.

Harry Moore and his wife Gail founded Rainbows. Their daughter, Laura, had died of Leukaemia in 1989. Laura’s favourite thing in the world was a rainbow. Harry said: “I feel immensely proud of what has been achieved at Rainbows over the last 20 years. The quality and the range of staff over the years has taken it beyond the vision we had; it makes me feel very overwhelmed. Rainbows is about the care and support we are giving and about the children. At Open Day, people can see that Rainbows is a happy place and they can see where their money goes; they also feel like they are part of the Rainbows community and that is very important.”

Geoff Ellis, chief executive at Rainbows, added: “Our 20^th birthday Open Day has been a great success and we would like to thank everyone who came along to view our facilities and find out more about what we do at Rainbows. We hope visitors were inspired by what they saw and continue to support us to deliver high quality services to children and young people with life-limiting illnesses as well as their families.”