We all love receiving a Christmas card at this time of year but 20-year-old El Roberts-Wright from Devon realised some LGBT+ people don't have that support.
While El was supported by her family when she came out, she realised that a lot of LGBT+ people are not as lucky and don't receive so much as a Christmas card from family members.
Despite struggling with illness, she sends 'rainbow cards' to people whose family don't accept them because of their sexuality or gender.
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El realised how isolating being rejected and turned away by those who love you must be and established the Rainbow Cards Project to support those most in need.
This year, El will send around 4,600 cards to people across the world.
The 20-year-old explained: "It was coming up to Christmas 2016 and I was thinking about how excited I was to write Christmas cards to all my family.
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"I have multiple chronic illnesses that had became severe enough the year before I had been too unwell to write any, but that year I was doing a little better and was excited about the prospect of sending some.
"Earlier that year, I had also come out to my parents, and several members of my extended family, so as I was thinking about sending my family cards a horrible thought dawned on me. I realised how it would feel if my coming out had been met with a different reaction and I had received rejection instead of acceptance. I imagined what it would be like to have no one to write cards to, and no cards turning up in my letterbox."
El wanted to do what she could to support any LGBTQ+ people who might be in that situation and hopefully reaffirm to them that the LGBTQ+ community is a family in itself.
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She put out a tweet asking if there were anyone out there who had stopped receiving Christmas cards since they came out. She told them they could message her and she would send them a card herself.
From just a few tweets, El ended up sending over 30 cards to nine different countries and discovered that other people wanted to help.
El adds: "They wanted to know what charity or organisation I was doing this via, and I had to explain it was just something I'd made happen informally with a couple of tweets."
This, and the responses El had when people received the cards, made her realise how many people in the community needed this in their lives.
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"I came away from that Christmas knowing this was something I needed to turn into a real project that could cater to more recipients and allow others to write cards."
In the first six months of 2017, El raised funds, set up a website and officially launching the charity in July 2017.
El also sends birthday cards and cards for other holidays.
People from all over the world sign up to be recipients and provide a little description about themselves and request certain types of cards.
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Then senders from all around the world pick recipients off the website to write to and they write one or more cards and send them to the organisation's PO box.
El personally checks every card and, when the time comes to send them out, decorates each envelope using washi tapes and stickers in the recipient's favourite colours.
Recipients typically receive about 6 cards each for their birthday.
This year El has sent 5,000-6,000 cards with around 4,600 of those being sent during the festive season.
Since launching the project, El has received messages of support from across the world. She explained: "People I've sent the cards to have said some incredibly touching things. So many people have told me opening their package made them cry because they felt so overwhelmed by love and support."
Some recipients even told her the organisation saved their life.
The project has helped El too as she has a number of chronic illnesses including the connective tissue disorder Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), where a sudden change from lying to sitting can cause an abnormal increase in heart rate.
"Running this project has given me a sense of purpose," she explains. "I've been bedridden for the past four years and that can be pretty isolating, but thanks to this project I no longer feel cut off from the world because I get post all the time from all over the world."
Featured Image Credit: El Roberts-Wright