When Liz and Tim Banks adopted their daughters Debbie (9) and Abbi (7) fifteen years ago, an elderly parishioner gave each of the girls a crocheted angel. The angels were hung up in their bedrooms. Later on Abbi’s angel would hang on her drip stand in hospital, where she was being treated for leukaemia – and just after Christmas last year, Abbi’s parents placed it alongside their daughter in her coffin.

In this Christmas edition of Things Unseen, Abbi’s family tell Rosie Dawson about their life with – and now without – her. A few nights before she died, Abbi told her mother of how she had seen angels around her bed. Liz reflects on how she tries to hold on to the Christian message of hope brought by the angels 2000 years ago while continuing to grieve for Abbi.

You can download the song Becky Higg wrote for Abbi from https://abbisong.org

All proceeds go to the Teenage Cancer Trust.