Princess Royal Opens New Centre
for Conductive Education

Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal was at the Percy Hedley Foundation in Newcastle upon Tyne on October 6th to officially open a new Adult Centre for Conductive Education.

The centre has been developed for adults who have motor disorder disabilities and has
already benefited many adults who have had a Stroke, have Parkinson's disease or have MS.

The Centre, consisting of a Therapy Suite and a Carers' Social Room, officially began
taking   participants in September 2009 and since then the number of participants has
grown. It now delivers over seven hundred sessions per year and supports over one
hundred disabled people per month.

MS Research and Relief Fund are supporter’s of the Foundation’s Adult Centre and the charity’s chairman  Paul Atkinson was invited to the opening along with the charity’s
Administration Officer Susan Dowson, Service User Manager Dave Farham and Dave’s  Personal Support Officer Stephen Brunning.

Her Royal Highness toured the centre, meeting participants and their families and then
formally opened the Centre by unveiling a commemorative plaque.

Dave has MS himself and was asked to take part in a demonstration of Conductive Education to the Princess Royal, who took a great interest in the demonstration and spoke to each participant personally.

The Princess Royal said: "The Foundation has certainly set the standard in the past and it still continues to do so. It only does that with a huge level of support locally and through very dedicated staff. It's always a pleasure to see what is going on here."

The Foundation’s Chief Executive, Tony Best, OBE, said of the visit, ‘It was a great honour and a privilege to welcome Her Royal Highness to the Centre. The development of the Centre has been made possible through the  generous donations of our supporters and the dedication of staff.’

MS Research and Relief Fund Chairman Paul Atkinson said “Everyone at MS Research and Relief Fund is delighted with the success of the joint project with the Percy Hedley Foundation and receiving a royal seal of approval was undoubtedly the icing on the cake. I was more than impressed by the Princess’s knowledge and interest in our work and we are all grateful for her attendance.

Conductive Education

Conductive Education is:
A system of learning developed by the Hungarian physician Professor Andras Pëto in Budapest, Hungary.

A unified system of rehabilitation for people with neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy,Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and those who have suffered strokes or head injuries.

A system in its own right. It is a system of learning that has been developed with groups of  individuals with motor disorders.

A learning process, not a treatment or therapy can be directed towards all age groups.

Teaches children and adults to achieve what they want and the motivation to find their own way of doing so.

Embraces learning and development of movement, speech and  mental ability simultaneously, not separately or consecutively.

Is not a miracle cure. It needs a concentrated effort over a period of time to enable the participants to achieve recognised goals directed by task analysis.

Is a positive concept that looks for ways in which the individual can develop purposeful  movement. It does not have a negative approach where complicated aids and equipment are used to facilitate motor control and stability.
Conductive Education has now become established in countries all round the world.