Kingston News
Excitement mounts for charity's move to new Hook home
8:10am Monday 6th February 2012
A charity that works with adults with learning difficulties “can’t wait” for them to move into their new home.
Residents of Fircroft Trust were originally hoping to be in their new Hook home before Christmas but overruns on the building work at Firs Court meant they are now expected to move in by March.
The move into a home with lifts, the option of single rooms and space to move wheelchairs around, will be the culmination of decades of work and allow the residents to stay together.
Friends, staff and residents gathered on Friday night for a Burns Night celebration to raise more funds.
Poems by Robbie Burns were read and haggis eaten during the night at Fircroft’s headquarters in Ditton Road, Surbiton.
Brian Gray, 50, a former engineer at BAE who worked on the Harrier jumpjet, now a cab driver in Tolworth, became involved because of his brother Stephen.
When their mother died, Stephen, who was living with her in Thames Ditton, moved to Fircroft’s Cherry House in Surbiton.
He said: “I have been saying to people what we are doing is something that will hopefully be there long after we have gone in 50 to 100 years from now. It will certainly outlive me. It has been worth the wait.”
Olga Bowey-Cockburn, 60, a retired psychiatrist from Cheam, was so impressed with the charity she got on board and is now chairman.
She said: “I became involved to give something back. The NHS wasn’t able to do enough for my patients but here there was always fantastic support.”
Our sister paper the Kingston Guardian has been backing the Building Potential Appeal. To read more click here.