‘I’m terrified and isolated. I’ve been told by her home ventilation team she won’t survive even a mild version of coronavirus and she would be unlikely to be ventilated in ITU if it came to having to choose who to give the beds to. SWAN UK gives me the support and the friendship when times are hard and something I couldn’t do without.’

The children and families supported by SWAN UK (syndromes without a name) are some of the most medically complex, vulnerable and isolated in the UK.

They need our support now more than ever but like all charities, we are already feeling the impact of the Covid-19 crisis – April is usually our biggest fundraising month so we are especially worried about the impact on our future.

Today we have taken the step of furloughing most of our staff team to reduce costs. This alone however might not be enough – we desperately need your help to ensure we can continue supporting the thousands of families across the UK who need us.

‘My daughter is extremely vulnerable, we can’t risk compromising her at all! So we just have to stay in, we don’t know what’s going to happen with food, money, with jobs, with our bills or even our home. It flipped very fast and very strongly. And honestly, I don’t know how I will ever get back to a normal life.’

Please can you help?