HRH Princess Anne officially opened the Livability Spinal Injury Centre today.

The centre will provide respite and rehabilitation services to people with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Building on and maintaining rehabilitation skills learnt in specialist NHS SCI services, the new centre, based at Holton Lee, will focus on providing visitors with a range of practical support to equip them for life beyond their cord injury.

The centre is a new and adapted facility that Livability has had developed by the construction team Stepnell. The centre will have spaces for up to 13 people to stay at any one time and will offer them specially designed, accessible facilities that feel like a ‘home from home’ environment.

Service visitors will benefit from the centre’s independence kitchen, fully accessible en-suite rooms and indoor therapy gym, as well as a dedicated team providing personalised and bespoke packages of rehabilitation and support. Operating on a residential basis with some drop in services, the centre is aiming to open officially to users by April 2017, following registration process completion.

The project has been backed with funding from the charitable foundations: The Bradbury Foundation, the Wolfson Foundation and The Talbot Village Trust.

The Princess unveiled a plaque to commemorate the opening, with one of the wings of the building being named ‘The Bradbury Wing’.

The event was attended by a wide range of visitors including local dignitaries, health and spinal injury services, supporters, donors, service users and members of the local community.

Princess Anne toured the centre and met with service users on Livability’s Flourish project – a gardening scheme for disabled people and people living with mental illness.

She also met Peter Thompson – a Bournemouth based running enthusiast who has set himself a sporting challenge called ‘Marathons for the Mind’ to run 44 marathons, in 44 days in 44 countries to raise awareness for mental health and fund for Livability. Read more here.

The Princess Royal said the centre would make ‘a valuable contribution, adding to the knowledge and skills and opening the doors for a very specific kind of support. It will promote support requirements for those that have been spinally injured and I look forward to what the achievements of these facilities can bring.

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