Hydrotherapy appeal

When Hattie has hydrotherapy, she really relaxes, laughing and smiling to show just how much she’s enjoying herself.

Hydrotherapy is important for all the special children at The Children’s Trust. It particularly helps them with pain relief, balance and co-ordination, mobility, communication and the promotion of independence whilst being a great source of fun, too. That’s why we’re currently building our new hydrotherapy centre, so all the children at the Trust will have the chance to receive hydrotherapy every week.

Hattie is a St Margaret’s School student at the Trust. She has Rett syndrome, a condition that means she has profound and multiple disabilities, for which hydrotherapy is particularly beneficial.

Hattie loves hydrotherapy. She finds making voluntary movements, like walking, and communicating difficult, but in the pool, we see real improvements.

Whilst Hattie’s enjoying herself, she’s also working really hard at her mobility and communication skills. She has to practise her dressing skills getting in and out of the pool, and demonstrates understanding of verbal instructions like ‘roll over’, ‘splash your hands’ or ‘kick your legs’ by practising the movements.

We know that Hattie responds incredibly well to music, but we can’t use a stereo by the current pool because it’s not safe. We can’t wait until the new centre’s ready, with sound equipment that could enable Hattie to activate music herself to sing along to. This would greatly improve her communication and enhance the speech and language therapy element of her hydrotherapy sessions.

The cost of running our hydrotherapy sessions and maintaining equipment isn’t cheap. Each year, The Children’s Trust must find over £110,000 to fund the cost of this vital facility.

Every day, children who have become disabled through accident or illness and children who were born with disabilities are making important improvements to their lives with the help of hydrotherapy.

By donating £38, you could help to cover the cost of running a hydrotherapy session for a child with profound and multiple disabilities. A donation of £15 could help train a volunteer to assist in our hydrotherapy pool.

Please make a donation today.  All donations are appreciated; they enable us to continue our vital work with severely disabled children.

Thank you.