The Times holds an annual appeal on behalf of charities whose work improves the lives of millions of people at home and overseas. This year, The Times has chosen to support three small, but significant, charities, representing three very different causes that we know Times readers care passionately about.

The first charity is TreeHouse. Over half a million people in Britain suffer from autism, a life-long communication disability. Yet few receive adequate support or the education they need. TreeHouse was set up by a group of parents 10 years ago who refused to settle for the inadequate provision on offer for their children. In that time it has grown from a class of five to a national centre for the education of autistic children with the aim of giving every child the best education on offer.

The second charity is Help for Hospices, a great British success story. In 1967 Dame Cecily Saunders opened the world’s first purpose-built hospice in Dulwich south London to provide the best modern medicine and palliative care to terminally ill patients. Forty years on, there are over 200 hospices in the UK following her philosophy that the last months, weeks or even days of life can be lived rewardingly and free of pain. Hospices are now all over the world.

Our third charity, Riders for Health works internationally . Each year billions of dollars are spent on drugs and vaccinations in Africa, but fail to reach their destination because of the difficulties of transportation. Delivering healthcare on foot or even by bicycle is an exhausting task, and even when vehicles are available they often break down when no-one has the maintenance expertise required to keep them on the road. Riders for Health trains doctors, nurses and health workers to ride motorbikes safely and, crucially, has developed a system for maintaining the bikes in Africa’s harsh environment. Their expertise means the bikes are rarely off the road and health workers can visit many more patients, hold mobile clinics in far flung villages and crucially, offer preventative treatment that can halt the spread of malaria, HIV and TB.

Over the next few weeks Times journalists will bring to life the outstanding work that these charities perform, every day, of every year. We will meet the people who run the charities and the individuals that they have helped. Please do show your support for their work by donating today. You can follow our appeal each day in the paper and give money to your chosen charity.

Yours

Robert Thomson

Editor, The Times