Her teenage daughter Rhiannon was assisted by South East Palliative Care for several months up until her peaceful death at home on May 20 last year.

Grateful for the service's help, Ms Landells organised a fund-raiser, Rhiannon's Rainbow Day, to coincide with the first anniversary of her daughter's death.

Last Monday, nearly all of the students at Rhiannon's former school, Cranbourne Secondary College, dressed in rainbow colours - Rhiannon's favourite colour scheme. They raised more than $1000 for South East Palliative Care.

Ms Landells hopes to involve other schools in Melbourne's south-east for the event next year, scheduled a week before Palliative Care Week.

Her aim is to make Rainbow Day a national event and to spread awareness about how palliative care can assist terminally ill patients.

"It was fantastic to see all the kids dressed in the colours. It keeps Rhiannon's memory alive," Ms Landells says.

Rhiannon was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer, Ewing's sarcoma, in 2005. During two years of intensive radiotherapy and chemotherapy, Rhiannon was cancer-free for a month. "The tumours were just too aggressive," Ms Landells says.

The palliative care service had given Rhiannon the "absolute privilege" of dying at home among pets, friends and family, including grandmother Jean.

"If not for palliative care, we wouldn't have been able to look after her with our other children and have the memories we have," Ms Landells says.

"Most people assume that palliative care is for the aged but it's also used for babies, toddlers and teenagers..

"I hope other people have the experience we had. It was beautiful to have her home with us."

As well as giving morphine pain relief, the service provided counselling for the family, aromatherapy and art and music therapy for Rhiannon during her final four months of life.

Respite carers were offered, but Ms Landells didn't want to leave her daughter's side.

At South East Palliative Care, about 50per cent of patients die at home rather than in hospital - higher than the 30 per cent national average for palliative care services.

But Rebecca Dollman, the service's fund-raising co-ordinator, says more funds and volunteers are required to ensure more patients can be treated at home as Rhiannon was.

"The more funding we can get, the more support we can give for carers such as counselling."

Rhiannon's Rainbow Day coincides with National Palliative Care Week being held this week.

To donate to South East Palliative Care, call 59911300.