The Sparkle Appeal is a local charity that is aiming to raise £1.5 million to equip a purpose built centre that will be a hub and spoke facility helping the 1200 children with complex disabilities in the South Gwent area to have treatment, care, information, leisure facilities and consultations all under one roof rather than having to travel to diverse centres across both South Wales and London. This will bring ease to the family unit and continuity of care to the children.
However, this isn't just about the treatment that the children will undertake, it's about the ability to bring the family unit back together, helping families to socialise (through use of the medi-cinema and leisure facilities), participate and watch disabled sports - the centre will have the only designated wheelchair sports area in South Wales where parents and able bodied siblings can participate in wheelchair basketball, wheelchair football and additional activities.
In addition to this they can participate in social gatherings bringing families with similar needs together, watch wheelchair sports competitions (who knows if the next Para Olympian may come from our centre??) and gain insight into dealing with varying situations, brainstorm ideas and just share knowledge on the best way of caring and nurturing the family unit.
The Centre will contain the following areas:
- Hydrotherapy Pool
- MediCinema / Conference Facility
- Dark / Light Therapy Room
- Toy Library
- Computer Therapy Room
- Assessment Nursery
- Audiology
- Plastering / Orthotics Splinting Suite
- Consulting Rooms
- Assessment / Therapy Rooms
- IT Resource Library
- Voluntary & Charitable Room
- Quiet Rooms
- Parents Room
- Training Gym
The need for this centre is vital, as the current centre does not offer adequate “space” and simply cannot cater for all the children’s diverse needs. The cost of equipping this new centre is £1.5 million. The Sparkle Appeal has embarked on a targeted fundraising campaign to equip this much needed building and this is where we can work together to raise these much needed funds.