Three charities will benefit from The Times Christmas Appeal launched this week.

The first is the Ellen MacArthur Trust for children suffering from cancer.

The trust has been helping young people come to terms with the impact of long-term cancer treatment so they can live a full life.

This charity, founded in 2003 by solo long-distance sailor Dame Ellen, takes young people aged 8-24 who are recovering from cancer on residential sailing trips to rebuild their self-confidence.

The Alzheimer’s Society works to help people with dementia carry on with their lives and remain connected to families and friends through its support programmes, its network of volunteers and with research to improve care and seek a cure.

The third charity is supporting Rohingya refugees who have fled to Bangladesh to escape ethnic violence in Burma.

Children on the Edge, set up by the late Dame Anita Roddick in 2004, has been helping the most vulnerable Rohingya in Bangladesh for the past seven years, providing education and protection in refugee camps.

Working with established local partners, this small charity has been providing humanitarian support since an upsurge in violence in recent months has led hundreds of thousands more refugees, many of them children, to make the perilous journey from Burma. It is providing clean water, latrines and food for these desperate people.