South Gloucestershire | Archive | 2005 | December | 2
From the archive, first published Friday 2nd Dec 2005.
A YATE gym is asking the public to back a fundraising campaign to send one of its customers abroad for life-changing treatment.
Members of the Bridges Health and Fitness Club, in Yate Leisure Centre, are hoping to raise money to send a paralysed member of the gym to Portugal for treatment that could radically improve Mark Henley's life.
Mark defied the odds by surviving an accident on his motorbike in 2002 but was left wheelchair bound.
Now members of the gym, led by staff member Paul Metheringham, are hoping to send Mark for Thermax treatment at a unit in Portugal to further aid his recovery.
Mr Metheringham explained why Bridges gym was backing Mark's plight and the importance of the Thermax treatment.
"Mark has attended Bridges gym since before he was discharged from the brain rehabilitation unit at Frenchay Hospital, where he spent two years and four months recovering from his accident," Mr Metheringham told the Gazette. "He has built up a unique rapport with all staff at the gym and manages to self motivate against all odds."
"Thermax is a unique system which offers intensive exercise therapy to rehabilitate and aid the recovery of those who have suffered paralysis," he added.
"This progressive exercise gives individuals a real prospect of taking over their lives and bodies."
However, treatment is not cheap and a two-week stay at the Thermax centre will cost £2,400.
"Mark's ultimate goals are to regain his independence, go walking again, ride a bike again and hopefully return to work," said Mr Metheringham.
A fundraising event will be held on Tuesday, December 20 with a grand raffle being held at the leisure centre and anybody wishing to support Mark should contact the centre on 01454 865692.
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