Hello! and welcome to my regular series, Marvellous Mondays. Here I will be publishing positive stories from other people, including my fellow Bloggers. These posts will be positive posts to remind us all on those hard and tiring days that it CAN be better. To give a little insight into other families and what they've achieved, any milestones they have reached with their children or anything that has made them happy that day. Marvellous Mondays was born when i had a really, really bad weekend with my daughter. It was a Monday morning and I started to write a new blog post about how i was feeling and what had happened. I found that I was making myself feel even worse and so i stopped and turned it into a positive post. It made me feel so much better writing about the The Many Things I Love About My Child Anyone can join in with Marvellous Mondays, If you have a post that you wish to send me then please Email me at lotsofloveandaffection@outlook.com with a subject title of Marvellous Monday's and include a small description of who you are and a blog link if you have one. I'm really looking forward to sharing everyone's stories with you, and I hope you like them too. Today we have a special Blog Post called Why I Work For Family Fund

By Laura Ashton - Booth

I started working at Family Fund in 2011 as a temp processing applications in the Grants Services department. I got to see first-hand the types of things families requested, how they would benefit that family and an insight into caring for children with a disability or serious illness.

After a few years I had the opportunity to join the Communications Team where I currently work as Digital marketing and engagement officer maintaining our website, social media sites and blogs. I believe it is important to share the voice of the families we help. It can be a struggle financially, emotionally and physically for families raising a disabled or seriously ill child, and our grants help break down many of the barriers families face, improving their quality of life and easing the additional daily pressures.

Family Fund provide grants for a wide range of items, such as washing machines, sensory toys, family breaks, bedding, tablets, furniture, outdoor play equipment, clothing, computers and much more. We ask families to tell us what they need and we will try of best to help with it within our funding.

Last year, we provided 89,423 grants or services worth over £36 million to families across the UK.

We believe that all families raising disabled or seriously ill children and young people should have the same opportunities as others. Beginning with the most vulnerable, those on low incomes, and considering all conditions against our disability criteria, we aim to make a difference to outcomes for disabled or seriously ill children and young people and the lives of the families raising them across the UK.

A part of my job is to ensure that we are constantly reaching new families. We believe that our families face ever-present and substantial pressures in their lives and by providing grants we help relieve some of that pressure and provide vital time and space in families’ lives.

Find out if you could be eligible to apply by reading our eligibility criteria.

Apply now or if you have any questions head over to our Facebook page where I would be happy to help.