By Sharon Carter | Trusts and Foundations Manager
Rainbow Trust supports families like the Khans. Daughter Anisah was diagnosed with bone cancer when she was nine years old. Rainbow Trust Family Support Worker Linda has supported Anisah's brother Ismael and four sisters Sameena, Maryam, Humayra and Zahra through Anisah's chemotherapy treatment and life changing operation to remove the tumour from her leg.
Her parents Zafar and Sarfraz explain the difference Rainbow Trust makes to their large family.
"The cancer wasn't just Anisah's illness, it affected the whole family. Every one of us has changed as a result of the experience. Rainbow helped us go through this ordeal as a family, together and stay as strong as possible.
"All of Anisah's siblings help with her care. They go to hospital appointments with her and help support her around the house. Her older sisters have been especially busy with her care over the holidays, putting her to bed during the day if she feels tired and making sure she is never alone in case she faints or falls. We know it impacts on their social lives but we need their help to look after Anisah.
"Anisah's sister Maryam has just finished her A-levels, but she hasn't done as well as we thought she would. Maryam used to love college and she was predicted really high results and wanted to be a pharmacist. The stress and emotion of Anisah's illness meant that she didn't want to go to classes and struggled to concentrate on college work. She's so close to Anisah, and struggled to deal with what was happening to her and what could happen in the future. She'd sit in the library day after day, not knowing what to do. She needed our help and support and because we were away at the hospital with Anisah, we just weren't there for her.
"Linda provides the best kind of support for Maryam and Anisah's brother and sisters, she laughs with them and takes their minds off what is going on for a couple of hours. She listens to any concerns they have. Linda is just trustworthy. We're always wary of talking to outsiders about Anisah and what we're going through but both of us and the children feel very comfortable talking to Linda."
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
