How can I have blank row in table??

Ive tried and Ive tried, ive searched hi and low for answer… when I first created the table, saved it, then previewed the page I could see the blank row I had left bewtween certain items. Now, it has gone, leaving the two horizontal lines of the other rows close together, almost like the words in the other rows are holding the lines up, and the empty row has nothing to support them, so they collapsed!

How can I fix this?? I could had a simple charactor to the row, and change the colour, but the background isnt a solid colour, and its hard to find a match – there must be asimpler solution?