In the 10 years since he and specialist nurse Cynthia Ward started the charity, they have helped more than 1000 seriously ill children and their families by providing symptom management and psychological support.
Mr Parkinson has seen 3-year-old siblings put a miniature toy coffin in the sand and repeatedly bury it while other plastic figurines watched as they made sense of their sister's funeral.
Another young girl overcame the fear of helicopters she developed after one came to collect her sister when she was having seizures by acting out different scenarios using a replica chopper.
Mr Parkinson said they were able to change her perception that helicopters took people away and stop her panic attacks by showing her how the chopper took patients to the hospital and returned them home when they were better.
And Ms Ward smiles as she talks about how a small boy with cerebral palsy, who could barely move, clapped for the first time during music therapy in the small, windowless music room crammed full of musical instruments.
She will also never forget the "precious moment" when a wheelchair-bound girl who could not move strummed her fingers to the sound test of a fundraising concert put on by the charity's patrons Tim and Neil Finn.
As well as helping children aged up to 18 with a raft of conditions ranging from cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy, seizures, cancer and muscular dystrophy, True Colours' role has evolved to include supporting parents with premature babies in Waikato Hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and more recently helping parents of babies where an abnormality is detected from 20 weeks' gestation.
Ms Ward said they were approached by the hospital's perinatal team to support parents as they decided whether to have a medical termination.
The organisation also worked with community nurses to provide after-hours nursing care and support parents in what Ms Ward said were some "really intense conditions".
"It's not uncommon now for parents to be supporting young babies with a trachy [tracheostomy tube] at home, oxygen dependent, on feed dependent technology. That was not happening 10 years ago.
"I had one mum say to me, 'People think it's really sad when a child dies, actually living in my shoes when you don't know when it's going to end and it's exhausting and your child is significantly compromised, disabled cognitively and physically."'
Ms Ward left her job at Waikato children's hospice Rainbow Place in 2004 because she felt an organisation was needed that could support all seriously ill children and their families rather than just focusing on end-of-life care. There is some cross over between the two organisations but the main differences are that Rainbow Place only supports children with life limiting illnesses, but provides grief support to children who experience sudden loss or who have terminally ill relatives.
True Colours was set up with money from an anonymous donor to keep it running for three months. It is still these generous donations from the community, fundraisers including the annual Melbourne Cup Long Lunch and charitable grants that the organisation relies on to cover its $400,000 annual operating costs.
Morrinsville fashion designer Annah Stretton bought the Franktonvilla for it to use free and three of the organisation's cars have been donated.
Tim Finn said he and his brother felt compassionate about the work True Colours was doing.
"We formed a strong personal connection with Cynthia during our mum's long illness and eventual death from cancer.
"When she told us that she wanted to set up a special service for children, we could see how her obvious ability to comfort both the dying and the immediate family would be so needed in this area.
"Now that I am a father, I can see there must be nothing more difficult than dealing with a child's death. This is crucial and profound work, and its importance speaks for itself. Both Neil and I feel lucky to be part of this compassionate work."
Paediatric Palliative Care Clinical Network clinical lead Dr Ross Drake said the range of palliative care services for children differed throughout the country and many were funded by district health boards and run from hospitals such as Auckland's Starship children's hospital.
He said the two services in the Waikato were provided by non-governmental organisations and filled what would otherwise be a gap in the region, especially for those whose conditions did not require palliative care, such as autism.
"What they [True Colours] do is they look after kids with a serious illness as well and it's more of a counselling support for families with a child in need of chronic care."
Cynthia Ward helped to found True Colours 10 years ago. Photo / Christine Cornege
Friends are there for the journey
Nic Brockelbank considers the team at True Colours his friends.
The 12-year-old has known them since he was 3 and diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, and the two founders, Cynthia Ward and Stephen Parkinson, have been a constant rock for his family.
When the Cambridge Middle School student was bombarded by questions about his condition from new students at the start of the year, he found it quite daunting and said by talking to Mr Parkinson, the trust's psychotherapist, he was able to explain that muscular dystrophy was a condition that made his legs sore, which is why he needed a power chair to get around the school.
Muscular dystrophy is a group of inherited disorders that causes muscle weakness and muscle wasting. A life expectancy of late teens to early 20s is often the prognosis.
When Nic started at True Colours about nine years ago, he did a lot of play and music therapy. Now he's older he spends most of his sessions talking.
His mother Chris and younger brother Toby, 8, also visit True Colours and Toby said playing in the sand with his counsellor Kim Hurrell helped him get his head around why his older brother had so many hospital appointments and why he didn't have a wheelchair when his legs got tired. "It answers a lot of questions and helps me understand more things," Toby said.
Ms Brockelbank said True Colours provided emotional and practical support and helped her and husband Rob better cope when she was pregnant with Toby and Nic was first diagnosed.
"They helped me and Rob to see 'well yeah we can do it'. Just take one day at a time - don't worry about 10 years' time or 20 years' time ... Generally when you are having kids you are not given a guide book on how to cope when things aren't quite going the way you had predicted it would."
She said True Colours had helped them celebrate the good moments and deal with the low.
"They are kind of there for the whole journey. Sometimes we might go a whole month without seeing them and other times something might come up and it's really good to have someone to talk to who are experienced and they can give you some advice. And they are not emotionally involved in it like your family or your friends might be."
They had also acted as advocates for the family and Ms Ward also talked to Nic's teachers last year about muscular dystrophy and how they could better help.
