PARENTS who set up a charity so that their handicapped children could receive ground-breaking treatment close to home are appealing to Citizen readers for help.

The New Horizons group, which raises money to pay specialists from Hungary to treat children with cerebral palsy, needs a new building for its physiotherapy sessions.

The treatment - normally only available at a cost of £5,000 in Hungary - can work wonders.

But the group, which currently shares Burnley's Gannow community centre with other organisations, says children would benefit more if they had somewhere of their own.

"We pay two Hungarian physiotherapists to work here two days a week," said New Horizons chairman Gary Trundle, whose seven-year-old daughter, Samantha, has cerebral palsy.

"The children are coming along well. Some kids are starting to walk and talk. It's amazing treatment. The kids are made to do things themselves so that they have to use their bodies - if they need to get to the other side of the room, then they have to roll."

He added: "We're very grateful to the community centre, but ideally we need our own place. At the moment we have to go up and down stairs and shift our special equipment to and from whichever room we're using. We end up spending too much time setting up and clearing away."

Eighteen children - nine from this area, the others from elsewhere in Lancashire - receive treatment at Gannow. One of them is Burnley's Liam Kowalski, who, as reported in the Citizen (May 23), has become the focus of attention for hundreds of Burnley people who are helping to raise money to send him to Florida, USA, for a course of treatment which includes a session with dolphins.

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