It's been a long road - starting Jessica's Trust. For a long time it was just me and a website, then in January this year I was joined, mainly via telephone and email, by a very experienced, organised and efficient Gill Kirk.

In late spring we gained the expert help of a microbiologist and a gynaecologist, as medical advisors.

Four of Jessica's ante-natal group friends then joined me as trustees of the formal Trust, and last month we were granted charitable status.

So much has been done, but there is so far to go.

There are many more people to contact, much help and advice to be sought, and so many people to spread the message to. We've got our poster and leaflet (available for download) which I'd really like to be able to get properly printed and sent out all over the place, e.g. in surgeries and clinics.

There are other documents that could usefully be created as well, and many other methods of raising awareness to explore.

We're busy on Facebook too, with our group, cause and fan page.

So much of this is easy to achieve, at little or no cost, but as we broaden our horizons, it inevitably costs more.

You know what's coming, don't you?

If you would like to make a donation to help us in our work, we would be extremely grateful. At the moment we can only take cheques and postal orders, but we hope to have an online card service up and running soon.

For details, please see www.jessicastrust.org.uk/donate/ and please, if you are a UK taxpayer, fill out the Gift Aid declaration and enable us to claim back an extra 28p for every £1 that you can spare - at no cost to you.

I'm Form Rep in Emily's class, so I get to organise the coffee mornings, evenings out with nice food and wine, cajole people into helping run stalls at the Christmas fair/sports day and goodness knows what else. I'm sure I'll find out.

Anyway, I was just chatting to two new Mum's - new as in new to the school - at our first coffee morning of the term about being the only dad around the table and about what the Jessica's Trust banner in my email signature is all about.

Obviously they'd followed the link and read some of the pages, but wanted to know what it was really like, what does it involve and a whole host of questions that a lot of people don't ask, but I like to answer.

I told them, adding that I was hoping to hear from the Charity Commission shortly about whether the application had been successful.

Back at my desk I opened the latest email that had arrived - from the Charity Commission:

Dear Sir or Madam

I am pleased to inform you that the above has now been registered under registration number 1126062 .  Written confirmation follows by first class post.

Please note that the information may take a few days to appear on our website.

etc etc

In the first moments of surprise and delight, suddenly tinged with the reality I thought, 'what do I do now, getting registered is all I've thought about for ages.'

There's so much to do and so many doors to open, but the first jobs are to update the web site, change the letterhead and open a bank account.

I must remember to organise a class night out for the Dads to come along to as well.

I've given the navigation menu a makeover today, allowing for greater flexibility and more space for extra pages.

Not a great deal of extra information to put on the site just yet, but there is a new Information for Parents page, lifted from the new leaflet which, together with the poster, is hopefully almost ready for release.

Hopefully more information and some great news soon.