A big thank you to a superstar fundraiser Annie Jefferies for her wonderful support!

Annie ran the Edinburgh Marathon on May 27^th in aid of The Movement Centre. Annie has a special connection with The Movement Centre because her cousin Jackson, who has cerebral palsy, came to The Movement Centre for a course of Targeted Training therapy 10 years ago. Jackson worked hard throughout his course, which helped to maximise his movement control, helped him gain head control and enabled him to interact better at home and school.

Annie rose to the challenge, completing (her first) marathon with an impressive time – less than 4 hours, despite having some challenges with her knees in the last 7 miles. A fantastic achievement!

You can still support Annie on her Just Giving Page.

You can view more pictures of Annie and Jackson on our Facebook Page. 

 

All sponsorship is now in from the 2018 Oswestry Bunny Run and it has been presented to a local charity. The 5k run, which first launched in 2016, raises money each year for local causes. This year the event supported The Movement Centre.

The 2018 event, which took place last month, raised over £860 to help support our work and has raised over £3000 for local causes since it started 2 years ago.

Thanks to the kind support of local businesses, all money raised by the participants of the Oswestry Bunny Run goes straight to The Movement Centre. Participants received a goodie bag, which sponsored by Sainsbury’s in Oswestry and volunteers from Oswestry Cambrian Rotary Club helped support the event. This year’s new online booking system was provided by Up Hill Down Dale.

“The Bunny Run is proud to donate all profits to The Movement Centre for their work supporting children with movement disabilities,” said James Manford, Co-organiser of Oswestry Bunny Run.  “Everyone enjoyed the day and it is great that we were able to raise money for a local cause as well as connecting the community through sport.”

The Oswestry Bunny Run is a fantastic event, and we were delighted to have been selected as the charity supported this year. We want to say a huge thank you to Oswestry Bunny Run, the supporters and everyone who took part in the event!

 

On Saturday 8th September 2018, Ariyan is going to ride his bike from Land’s End to John O’Groats. It will take 9 days, passing 23 counties and 3 countries to cover 969 miles, with plenty of serious hills. He will be raising funds for The Movement Centre.

In September 2017, Ariyan started working on a project with an Engineering team at Liverpool John Moores University, in partnership with The Movement Centre.

While Ariyan loves cycling, he has never cycled more than 68.6 miles in a day.

“I was even shattered after that recent training attempt,” Ariyan said. “In the 9 days in September, I have to cycle over 100  miles per day. This is all about achieving my own personal goal and raising money to support children with disabilities. I feel it is important  to show myself, and others,  the importance of believing in your abilities, no matter if able bodied or not. Together we can move as far as we want, we can beat distances, and even hills, if we have a proper goal in mind and the right ‘Targeted Training’. I have taken this 969 miles cycling challenge seriously and started my own ‘Targeted Training’ from April; cycling every day to work and a long distance at weekends. This is the biggest challenge that I have ever put myself through and it is going to be a bit tough, but still nothing like the toughest fight that some children face to just stand and walk.”

We are all wishing Ariyan lots of luck!

Have a look at Ariyan’s Just Giving page to find out more about his story and to support his challenge: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ariyan

On the 10th April we held our Annual Awards Party, where we celebrate the amazing achievements of the children who come to The Movement Centre for Targeted Training therapy.

We had a fantastic time and it was wonderful to be able to have fun with so many of the families.

We also presented the Lady Trevor Awards to our fantastic volunteer Doreen (we’ll be sharing more about Doreen and her Award soon!).

We were also very lucky to have a special video to show to everyone on the day from our wonderful patron, Sophie Christiansen . Sophie sadly could not attend as she was competing in France. Sophie Christiansen, CBE, is a British dressage rider who has competed in four successive Paralympic Games and is currently an eight-time Paralympic champion. She had a lovely message to share with the children and their families. You can watch the video below… Thank you to Sophie for a lovely video message!

Thank you also to Clarke Pictures for volunteering his services once again and taking so many wonderful pictures that capture the day so well. The day was made extra special due to the kindness of so many people; Corner Exotics, for the incredible entertainment, which went down a storm! Visible Rhythm Mobile Disco for bringing along the brilliant selfie table. Rhosddu Carpets for supplying us with a super red carpet. The Venue at Park Hall for all their help and support on the day. Lanyon Bowdler for bringing the popular Teddy Bear Hoopla to the party!

 

Jeremy Rose, who runs Ocean Telecom on Mile Oak Industrial Estate in Oswestry will be taking on the ‘Three Peaks Challenge’ in May this year to raise money for The Movement Centre.

Jeremy felt inspired to raise money for The Movement Centre after visiting us last year. Jeremy said: “After visiting The Movement Centre and seeing them in action and meeting a young child who goes to the charity to receive Targeted Training therapy, I was so impressed that I wanted to do something to contribute to the fantastic work going on there.”

Three members of the Ocean Telecom team, Robin Talbot, Chris Spriggs and Sean Bolas will be joining Jeremy on the challenge which will see them scale the three highest mountains in the UK. Starting in Fort William, the team will climb Ben Nevis, Britain’s highest peak in around five hours, before driving almost six hours to Scafell Pike in the Lake District. The last leg of the journey will be to Snowdon in North Wales, where the team have been carrying out regular training.

Although Jeremy has completed the Three Peaks once before, the team accompanying him vary in experience when it comes to mountaineering but are determined to complete the gruelling physical and mental challenge in 24 hours.

The team started their training in February and have already climbed Snowdon twice in very icy conditions.

Anyone wishing to donate, should visit Jeremy’s Just Giving page. 100% of the donations will go to The Movement Centre as the cost of the challenge is funded by Ocean Telecom.

We were delighted to welcome Oswestry Rotary Club today, so that they could see where the grant they very kindly gave us was spent.

They raised money from the Tree of Light appeal. This year £6,000 was raised which benefitted 11 charities, and we were lucky enough to be one of those charities.

3 members from the Rotary Club attended The Movement Centre, and spent time speaking to one of our physiotherapists Sarah, who explained Targeted Training and how it works.

We then showed them our new equipment in our treatment room, the soft play building blocks, which they very kindly gave us a grant for. We are sure the children visiting The Movement Centre will absolutely love playing and building with the blocks.

Registration is now open for Oswestry Bunny Run, which takes place on the 8^th April 2018. It is the 3^rd year of the 5k charity fun run, where participants are able to enjoy the beautiful green spaces in Oswestry and support local charities.

We are delighted that the Bunny Run is supporting The Movement Centre this year.

“The concept of the Bunny Run was to raise money for local charities as well as connecting the community through sport,” said James Manford, Co-organiser of Oswestry Bunny Run.  “This year, the Bunny Run is proud to donate all profits to The Movement Centre for their work supporting children with movement disabilities.”

You don’t need to be a competitive runner to take part in the event. Participants of all ages are welcome, including four-legged friends! Fancy dress is encouraged, but not essential. The Bunny Run is supported by a number of local businesses. Participants receive a goodie bag which is sponsored by Sainsbury’s in Oswestry and volunteers from Oswestry Cambrian Rotary Club help with the event. The online booking system has been provided by Up Hill Down Dale. Over the last two years the event has raised nearly £2000 for local causes.

To take part in the event you can register online at www.bunnyrun.co.uk. The entry price is £10.50 for adults and £5.50 for children, with all profits going to The Movement Centre.

Oswestry Lions Club has supported The Movement Centre with a kind donation of £6250.

This year, Lions around the world are joining in the celebration of 100 Years of Service of Lions Clubs International. Lions Clubs International is the world’s largest charitable service organisation with more than 1.4 million members in approximately 46,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas around the world.

“Oswestry Lions Club is pleased to support The Movement Centre in its pioneering work,” said Maureen Ross, Chair of Oswestry Lions Club. “This has been made possible by the generosity of the people of the town in donating to the Lions during fundraising events.”

Lions Club of Oswestry regularly fund and aid many good causes, supporting town and district events, bursaries and competitions within schools, donating to and via other charitable and public service organisations and to many individuals in their time of need over the last 42 years.

 “We are so thankful to Oswestry Lions Club for their generous contribution towards our work”, said Pauline Holbrook, Director and Clinical Lead, at The Movement Centre. “Donations like this enable us to continue providing Targeted Training therapy, which makes a huge difference to the children and their families.”

Targeted Training is unique to The Movement Centre. As it is a specialist therapy it sits outside of the remit for standard NHS funding. This means that we rely on the generous support of donors and fundraisers. It is only with this support that we can continue to make a different to the lives of children and families throughout the UK.

 

Telecoms provider, Ocean Telecom, have chosen The Movement Centre as their new charity partner.

They will be organising a number of fundraising initiatives to raise funds to support our work.

Jeremy Rose, managing director of Ocean Telecom, said: “After visiting The Movement Centre and seeing them in action

and meeting a young child who goes to the charity to receive Targeted Training, I was so impressed that I wanted to do something to contribute to the fantastic work going on there.

“I’m currently putting together a big charity challenge that I hope all our loyal customers will support me on.”

We are really excited to be  partnering with Ocean Telecom and can’t thank them enough for their support!

MKM Building supplies have recently become a corporate partner of The Movement Centre, although they have been supporting our work for the last two years.

We attended the cheque presentation at MKM Building Supplies and were awarded with a donation of £4000.

MKM Building Supplies is the UK’s largest independent builders’ merchant, with 51 branches across England and Scotland in addition to MKM Leisure, a specialist distributor for the caravan and holiday homes industry.

We look forward to working together in 2018!