Hundreds of New England children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities are celebrating the opening of Cerebral Palsy Alliance’s new state-of-the-art therapy centre at Armidale.
Sargents Pies Charitable Foundation donated $900,000 to purchase the land and construct the purpose-built facility in the middle of Armidale’s medical precinct in O’Dell Street.
Cooper Johnson, aged two, who has cerebral palsy, officiated with cake cutting duties at the official opening, alongside President of Cerebral Palsy Alliance Marelle Thornton AM and Karl Fretwell, National Sales and Marketing Manager for Sargents Pies.
Each year, Cerebral Palsy Alliance provides support for as many as 100 families living throughout the New England area. The organisation first provided services in the region in 2004 at rented premises in the University of New England. However, the space was not ideal for clients with a disability, particularly those using wheelchairs.
Thanks to the generous donation by Sargents Pies Charitable Foundation, work began last year on the environmentally and family friendly purpose-built centre in the town’s medical precinct in O’Dell Street. The new centre is fully wheelchair accessible and has three therapy rooms, an open plan office and a meeting room.
The Armidale team includes a physiotherapist, two occupational therapists and a speech pathologist.
They travel throughout a vast area spanning some 93,000 square kilometres, providing services to families living anywhere from the Great Dividing Range between Tamworth and Tenterfield, to the Namoi and Gwydir River Valleys of Inverell, Moree and Narrabri and as far north as the Queensland border.
The team also provides services to a number of indigenous communities throughout this region.
Cerebral Palsy Alliance CEO Rob White said Armidale was the ninth site in regional and rural NSW to be funded through the generosity of Sargents Pies Charitable Foundation.
“This generosity has been life changing for thousands of families throughout regional NSW whose children have cerebral palsy and other disabilities,” Mr White said.
“Sargents has enabled us to build a network of state-of-the-art therapy centres that provide vital services closer to people’s homes, which reduces travelling time and costs for families that are often already pushed to the limit, both financially and emotionally.
“Our new centre at Armidale also enables us to run more support activities on site, such as our new MyTime support group for parents and carers. These types of activities have the potential to be life-changing for local families,” he said.
