Spirotech Group was made aware of the issues that the Cambridgeshire MS therapy centre were facing in early May of this year.
The centre had some major challenges from the pandemic including soaring energy prices and a failing heating system which wouldn’t last another winter. The centre’s Chairman, Tim Barke, had real concerns for the future and their ability to continue to provide the much-needed service for MS patients and their families. Tim explained that the new boilers and repairs to the heating system would cost around £30,000, funds they simply didn’t have. Without any local or government funding they felt helpless.
Action urgently needed
The board at Spirotech decided they couldn’t see a local charity within the community face the possibility of closure. After explaining the issues to one of Spirotech’s own clients, another locally based company Environmental Product Solutions Ltd, the two businesses both agreed to help.
And action taken
Following a meeting with the centre’s Tim Barke, it was agreed that Spirotech Group and Environmental Product Solutions would fund the new boiler system and the centre would fund the installation cost. To help with the installation costs, the local community generously stepped in by arranging a fund-raising garden party and a sponsored walk.
A justifiably proud Spirotech team
The result of local business and the community working together means that the centre now has a new heating system ready for the winter months. All the team at Spirotech Group are immensely proud to have played such a pivotal part in ensuring that this much needed project happened.
About the M.S. Therapy Centre
Started in 1985 by MS sufferers, their families and a group of volunteers, the self-help group rented a very small industrial unit on Stukeley Meadows Industrial Estate with a very small hyperbaric oxygen chamber and little else. The group outgrew this building and a purpose-built new centre was planned, built and opened in 2002 at Bradbury House off Mayfield Road Huntingdon, which is where the centre is today.
The much needed services the centre provides has helped so many individuals and families and from 1st January 2024 the name will change to Huntingdon Neuro Therapy Centre to reflect the fact that its users are not just limited to those with M.S. but the whole range of neurological conditions.
Significant treatments, advice and support
The centre serves the needs of MS sufferers and other neurological conditions, their families and friends. The therapies on offer have included physiotherapy, yoga, reflexology, head massages, body massage and, importantly, oxygen therapy using a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. This is coupled with information and advice on MS research, state benefits, mobility aids, local services and, most importantly, the opportunity to meet other sufferers.
Other significant treatment offered is chair-based Yoga, Tai-Chi and Pilates for the physically disabled, not just for those with MS, but for others with sporting injuries and any other infirmity that could be assisted by exercise.
Help is also offered to people with other neurological conditions and the centre has seen an uptake in users of the Bariatric oxygen chamber suffering with long Covid and other lung related conditions. It has also been used by athletes to speed up recovery from injury.
Chairman of the Trustees, Tim Barke, explains why help with funding is the centre’s lifeline:
“As a registered charity the centre receives no government or local authority funding and relies totally on charitable grants, donations, goodwill, fundraising efforts from individuals and local businesses to survive. Post Covid, with costs increasing and the amount of donations significantly reducing, the centre needs a substantial increase in income to survive.
The good news is that thanks to the generosity of three businesses, namely Spirotech Group Ltd., Environmental Process Systems Ltd. and TF Plumbing & Heating Ltd., the centre needs to raise only £9000 towards the installation cost with everything else donated. Our previous quotes for the work were approx. £32000.
We are extremely grateful to all who help us but the cash situation for the centre is still dire and we continue to seek donations to create a more stable future for the centre and its users.”
Spirotech Group will continue to help and support the therapy centre going forward.
Should you wish to understand more about Cambridgeshire MS therapy centre or would like to donate, please visit: https://cambstherapycentre.co.uk
