Parents campaign to save special needs nursery
Monday, June 9, 2014
A new support and fundraising group has been set up by two parents in aid of the Peter Pan Nursery for Children with Special Needs in Staffordshire.
The nursery is a registered charity providing care and education to 43 children with special needs aged from birth to five. It also supplies the children’s families with advice and support, including a specialised family room and training courses such as Makaton signing, baby massage and first aid. It is currently over 90 per cent funded by donations.
Charlotte and Matthew White launched Maximise after their son, Max, aged two, was diagnosed with syringomyelia, a rare condition affecting fluid on the spine, last year. Max also has global development delay, which meant he required the one-on-one care provided by the Peter Pan Nursery.
The Maximise group’s first fundraising event, a family fun day, was held in the grounds of local pub the Broughton Arms and raised £800 with around 250 supporters.
Matthew White will also be completing a 1,000 mile bike ride to raise money for the cause in August, cycling with a friend for 13 days from Land’s End to John O’Groats.
Charlotte White said, ‘The staff at Peter Pan are wonderful with the children and we have seen such an improvement in Max since he has been there. It’s the only place that he loves going to, he is happy there which is very comforting to me.
‘It’s a shame that the service isn’t available for everyone in the region and that is why we are wanting to raise as much money as we can so the service offering can increase, more nursery nurses can be employed and the waiting list of children decreased. It would be so nice to give all those children the opportunity of the best start in life just like Max has had.’
The nursery sets a fundraising target of £250,000 a year to keep its doors open to families across Staffordshire and Cheshire.
Mandy Price, centre manager, said, ‘It is such a credit to the charity that we have such supportive parents and families. We are very proud of Charlotte, Matt, Matt’s friend Mark and their family for putting on two fantastic third party fundraising events and hope their efforts will go a long way to helping us reach our target of £250,000 this year.’
To support the 1000 mile bike ride visit https://www.justgiving.com/bigride2014
