Blossom Barton

"I wanted to say a huge thank you for our wonderful holiday. Being able to go away has made a huge amount of difference to both Blossom and ourselves.

The fact that she was able to spend a prolonged amount of time with her little friend Isabel has meant that her development has come on in leaps and bounds ... she was previously very nervous around other children as they have a tendency to pull at her traccy, but she is now far more outgoing and behaving more like a two year old. She has even started to make little noises which I am convinced was because she spent time with Isabel rushing about just shouting ... we have heard her laugh for the first time!

The holiday was also a welcome break for Stuart and I, and being able to spend it with friends who have a "normal" child (whatever that means!) showed us that we could relax a bit more and just have fun with Blossom. I think that when you have a child whose grasp on life was so tenuous to begin with and still spends a lot of time in hospital seeing various specialists you sometimes forget that you don’t have to worry all the time and can just enjoy life again.

Once again, thank you so much for giving us such a wonderful gift and I would like you to know that your generosity makes such a difference to families like ours."