In the past few months I have done really sad stories about sick children.

But they are the most uplifting stories I have done, too, because in each case families have turned their own personal traumas and tragedies into helping others.

I have written this kind of column before but I don’t care.

I don’t think there are too many times that I can pay tribute to the charity of the people in West Cumbria.

The three most recent examples are, first, the Johnston family of Little Broughton. Greg and Jill lost their first baby, Evie, at six months old.

They spent most of those months at her hospital bedside hoping and praying for her recovery but always knowing that her chances of surviving were slim.

Evie died 13 months ago.

Instead of curling up in a ball of despair – and I am sure there was and still is despair – the couple decided their daughter’s life would count. And count it has.

“Team Evie” has raised more than £55,000 to help other families and sick children, both in hospital and at home.

They have recently been blessed with another daughter but Evie is not forgotten and the work in her name continues.

The second family are Jack Gibson’s family in Flimby.

Sam and Andrew Gibson’s Flimby home was flooded in December. On the day they got into it, a day of celebration, they were told their 18-month-old son, Jack, had cancer.

While they were in hospital in Newcastle they saw an advertisement for a cake sale for the Sick Kids charity.

Despite their own worries, they decided they needed to help.

In four months they have raised over £10,000.

The latest story I have written is about an Aspatria family.

Three-year-old Logan Waite has just been diagnosed with cancer.

Family and friends got together to raise money to help parents John and Kerry and their other two children with the expense of the frequent trips to Newcastle they will be taking over the next months.

The family have now decreed that money should go to help other families with children in hospital.

These are just three of the important stories I have been involved in.

There are so many other examples of people who have turned their own illness or the tragic illness or death of a loved one into an opportunity to help someone else.

I am not talking about asking for charity donations at a funeral. That is helpful and should be encouraged. But the stories I am talking about are stories of true heroism.

These are people in the midst of their own heartache, tragedy or fear of the future who still, in the middle of that turmoil, take time to think of others.

I wish I could be that brave and I am sure I could not.

I don’t know if it is a British thing or a West Cumbrian thing. Whatever it is, I am in awe!

I happily dig as deep as I can into my pockets when faced with the stories we hear during national telethons such as Children in Need and Comedy Relief. I even have a direct debit to a children’s charity.

None of it really costs me. None of it involves me raising my head above a tide of grief and holding out my hand – not to ask for help but to give it.

Greg and Jill – thanks to you total strangers know about, and have reason to be grateful for, your baby Evie.

Sam and Andrew, John and Kerry – I know that anyone who has heard your stories is praying for the swift recovery of your sons.

And to all of you – and all the countless others who turn their sorrow into help for others – what else can we say but “Thank you.”