A huge part of Freemasonry is about the Brethren coming together to aid a member of the Lodge who has a need or, frequently a charity they wish to support for a particular reason or cause.

In October 2015,  our LKodge Almoner, W.Bro. Colin Paice  petitioned the Lodge for a donation of £500 towards Surrey charity ‘The Children’s Trust for Children with Brain Injury based at Tadworth Court.

One of Colin’s employees at Paice Motors has a daughter who is being treated at the centre following a traffic accident.

Colin matched the Lodge’s £500.00 donation and he and his wife Kay, along with our WM W.Bro. Steven Pepper presented two cheques which combined raised £1000.00 to the fundraising manager Karen Philips on January 22nd.

Their visit gave them the opportunity to see the amazing work that the Trust does in rehabilitating children who have been born with disabilities or have been involved in illness or accident which has result in brain injury.

The Children’s Trust offers a range of residential rehabilitation services for children and young people with acquired brain injury (ABI).

In 1985 they started the UK’s first paediatric brain injury rehabilitation service and now work with children and families from across the country. The Trust runs the UK’s largest service of its kind at their national specialist centre in Tadworth, Surrey.

The rehabilitation service is funded directly by NHS England via National Specialist Commissioning.

Their flexible services reflect the range of abilities and needs of children with brain injuries; from those who are minimally conscious to those who appear to have made a full physical recovery but are left with ‘hidden’ problems with their cognition, memory, communication and behaviour.

The Trust’s services aim to:

maximise each child’s potential
restore lost skills and where possible, develop alternative skills and provide compensatory aids as needed
facilitate new learning beyond the end of the child’s natural recovery period
develop an understanding of the child’s needs ensure the child’s home environment is modified for the way they will function after their brain injury
prevent secondary problems such as joint contractures developing.
The rehabilitatetion team also works with the child and their family to help them come to terms with the new needs of their child.