The difference your support makes

Treloar’s, alongside being a school and college, is a charity that delivers outstanding, around-the-clock nursing care, therapy, independence training and education to around 180 disabled children and young people aged 2-25. Every day, we prepare young people to live as independently as possible and reach their future aspirations. But this can’t be done without the help of our supporters: the difference their support makes is extraordinary.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our generous donors. Thanks to them, we have been able to replace two Parker baths over the summer months. This type of specialist equipment is absolutely essential for our students with highly complex needs – baths like this enhance the bathing experience. A Parker bath is height adjustable and goes from sitting to reclining, allowing the carer and the student to choose their preferred position. They have a wide range of therapeutic benefits too: they help to daily combat their painful cramps, muscular tension and swollen joints.

Moreover, we are exceptionally grateful to Cheyne Charity who has provided Treloar’s with further funding this summer to help us add the latest specialist equipment into our library stock. This includes speech and language therapy, assistive technology and occupational therapy equipment – all of which enables our young people to learn the skills they need to communicate and be as independent as possible in the future.

Additionally, at the beginning of summer, the renovation works of our swimming pool commenced. This would not have been possible without the help of the Gosling Foundation, East Hampshire District Council – Community Infrastructure Levy and many other funders who have generously supported this refurbishment project. Thanks to the supporters, we are now able to renovate the pool which will increase capacity by 60% through:

• adding new changing rooms with direct tracked hoists to the pool
• reducing the depth of the pool at the deep end to allow more students to be supported in the water by their carer
• improving ventilation to reduce fatigue; and
• retiling the pool to help the visual needs of students

These changes will provide significant physiological and mental health benefits to our students, local families who use the swimming pool for lessons and disability charities who use our facilities during holiday periods.

Swimming is a fantastic opportunity for many of our students who are wheelchair users to experience a physical freedom, different from their day-to-day lives. Many students experience a level of independent movement that they cannot achieve outside of the water, and this in turn promotes their confidence and self-belief. Time spent in the water has a long-lasting impact of the quality of our students’ lives.

Ellie, PE Teacher at Treloar’s