Local charity, the Neuro Therapy Centre, is celebrating after being awarded more than £98,000 in National Lottery funding.

The funds will be used to support its work to create a Virtual Centre to operate in these challenging times. The charity, based in Saltney, Flintshire, will extend the virtual delivery of its services to enable people with long-term neurological conditions to maintain their access to tailored exercise.

The Neuro Therapy Centre is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, but was not expecting to turn all in-person services into a virtual offer back in April. The virtual services and telephone support that the Centre has been running has become a lifeline for people in the region -helping them to keep up with regular exercise through live Zoom sessions with the Centre’s therapists and maintain their mobility. Their members have also benefitted from weekly contact with the Centre’s support team and counselling sessions over the telephone, which have helped people’s wellbeing. This regular contact has given people a way to ask for advice in these uncertain and challenging times, as well as maintained a social contact, which was much needed during these times when people feel isolated.

The Centre now runs 9 weekly live exercise sessions, telephone counselling sessions and support groups over zoom, a number of social online events, weekly telephone support and weekly e-mail communications giving guidance on support, advice and entertainment available.

The new funding from the Reaching Communities and People & Places funds is part of the National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK, has helped these sessions continue and expand, as well as allowing for some sessions to be recorded, so that they can be made available on the Centre website to be used as and when people need them.

At the same time the Centre will be working on integrating the virtual sessions with its in-person services for the future, to be able to use this opportunity to reach more people who can benefit from its services.

Jane Johnston-Cree, Centre Director at the Neuro Therapy Centre said “We’re delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has recognised our work in this way. Now, thanks to National Lottery players we will be able to continue and grow our online delivery and see what scope there is for continuing this work in the long-term. This is important because it will not only help us to make sure people known to the Centre are able to still access the services which help them manage their condition but we will be seeing how we can use this experience to increase of offer to expand our impact in the region.”