In honour of our President, Dame Vera Lynn's 100th Birthday, we have launched the #VERA100 Campaign to raise £10,000 to purchase a 'magic carpet' for our children to use at our Dame Vera Lynn Children's Centre.

A 'magic carpet' is a fantastic interactive resource for the children which projects moving images onto any surface, allowing children to engage and play with them through a multitude of control devices, including their own torch. This interactive piece of equipment enables children to enter an exciting virtual world where they can feed the fish in a pond, scatter leaves in the air and play with the stars. In addition to our hands-on early intervention service, we also want to give our children the means to start to access the world outside and by having a magic carpet, this engages the children; they are having fun and learning to do things that they might not otherwise ever be able to do.

We are asking our supporters, community and companies to get involved in helping us to raise these funds. People can get involved in whatever way they like, from holding a cake sale, to having a dress-down day at work or organising a quiz night. Every penny raised will go directly to the #VERA100 campaign so we can buy our magic carpet.   

Dame Vera, our President, said:

"Early intervention is key to helping young children with cerebral palsy and other motor learning conditions gain a solid base from which they can develop their independence and self-esteem in later life. This is why I was determined to ensure this service could continue in my home county of West Sussex and support families from across the South East."

"I am so proud of how far the charity has come and all the work it does to support our families.  It makes it all worthwhile when the children we have helped get in touch to tell us what they are doing and achieving as adults."