A FAMILY from Johnston are the stars of a children’s hospice Christmas appeal, aiming to raise funds to keep the hospice running all year round.

The parents of Molly and Emily Griffiths, Sarah and James, feature in the Christmas appeal video of Tŷ Hafan’s children’s hospice, explaining that even during the Christmas holidays, the hospice’s doors never close to the families that need it most.

For families like James and Sarah’s, Christmas is just another day of medical routine.

So the job of Tŷ Hafan, based on the outskirts of Cardiff, is to bring a little bit of magic and festive cheer to families using the hospice, at what sometimes feels like the hardest time of the year for them.

Since Molly and Emily were born, life has not been how their parents ever expected it to be.

Both girls were born healthy babies two years apart, but in 2008, Molly, now 14, and Emily, now 12, were separately diagnosed with Rett Syndrome, a rare condition that affects the development of the brain.

Doctors have explained to James and Sarah that it was likely that the girls’ lives would be short.

Struggling to care for their girls is part of every day life for James and Sarah and Tŷ Hafan offers a them a lifeline at Christmas.

“At home, even though it’s Christmas day, we still have all the usual caring duties like medication, feeding and changing,” said Sarah.

“So when we come to Tŷ Hafan, the day is a thousand times better because we can do all the nice things like opening presents, singing Christmas songs and watching Christmas films with our children. We let the staff do all the hard stuff and take the weight off our shoulders.”

James added: “Tŷ Hafan means the world to us. We’d be lost without them.”

For more information about Tŷ Hafan’s Christmas appeal, visit the website.