Two grants awarded in a month

In the space of a week, West Berkshire Therapy Centre is delighted to have been awarded a grant of £3,000 from Greenham Common Trust and separately £5,000 from Berkshire Community Foundation. The awards are to help disabled adults with mobility problems to exercise under safe supervision on the Centre's specially adapted power-assisted equipment, helping to cover the costs of those in hardship and covering part of the Centre's core costs respectively.

The Centre's Development Trustee, John Holt, said 'About 70% of our costs are covered by voluntary contributions from local disabled people using our service. These two grants help us to bridge the gap between that income and the actual costs of running the service. We maintain a high level of professional oversight and service quality as we help local people with mobility problems to walk safely and further and be more independent. Our great team of volunteers help us keep our costs down, but we need to raise grants and secure other funds to maintain standards. These grants are very much appreciated. Between them these grants will allow us the equivalent of helping about 50 local frail or disabled individuals to walk about 10% further than otherwise, which is a transforming amount in terms of helping with vital tasks of daily living and remaining independent.'

The Centre has been open for over five years and provides over 250 individual exercise therapy sessions each week. It is still growing and readily able to provide more capacity for anyone in need of help.