The Percy Hedley Foundation opened in 1953 with just 12 students and now supports over 600 people across its sites in the North East.
One of the North East’s best-loved charities – The Percy Hedley Foundation – is celebrating 70 years of supporting and empowering people with disabilities and has launched two major fundraisers to celebrate the significant milestone.
The charity has provided an incredible 30 million hours of education, therapy and care for children and adults since it began and now employs 1,050 people across two primary schools, a college, four residential homes, and an adult learning service.
Percy Hedley is the largest education and care provider in the north east for people with physical or learning disabilities including people who are deaf, blind and autistic.
Until 1953, there were no schools in the region for children with special educational needs but Molly and Stephen Darke, whose son Stephen had cerebral palsy, made it their mission to open one. The couple placed an advert in the local newspaper in 1949 appealing for other parents of disabled children to join their fundraising campaign.
The parent group used to go from pub to pub in Newcastle collecting donations to launch a school. There was a trend in the 1950s where pub customers would dip a penny in a pint and build tall, wide towers of the coins on the bar to donate to charity – the beer would act as a glue. Legend has it that the group used to wash the coins in a bath before banking it.
When the first school opened in February 1953, there were 12 pupils – including Stephen Darke who stayed in the care of the Percy Hedley Foundation throughout his life until he died last year.
The Foundation’s oldest, surviving pupil, Jenny Young, 76, originally from Seaburn in Sunderland, was also one of the original classmates of ’53 and is still benefitting from the Foundation – living in their Chipchase House residential home, in Benton.
Jenny has a starring role in the 70th birthday celebrations.
Ms Young said: “I started school when I was six. It was a boarding school in those days so I had to leave my mam and dad. It was frightening but I soon made friends and loved it.
“I feel as though I have lived a life and not missed out on anything.
“Over the years, staff have come and gone but we have always been able to have fun with them, even playing practical jokes.”
Jenny is fully independent and lives her life to the full – she was even swimming in the sea at South Shields last week, using specialist equipment from another local charity, Beach Access North East to get her across the sand and into the water.
To commemorate seven decades of being at the forefront of revolutionising the care of disabled people in the region, the Foundation is asking people to get behind their fundraiser ‘Jonny Cycles to Space’.
Long-time-fundraiser for the charity, Jonny Connop, 44, from Forest Hall, is attempting his toughest challenge yet for Percy Hedley by taking on the epic challenge of cycling to ‘space’
He is cycling an average of 1000 feet in elevation every day on his bike throughout 2023, until he reaches the equivalent of space – at 364,000 ft – which is also the same as cycling 134 times up the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
After a two-year hiatus, the Foundation is also bringing back its flagship fundraising event – the Mistletoe Ball – which will be held on Saturday 18th November at the Hilton Newcastle Gateshead hotel.
This year’s Mistletoe Ball will be the charity’s 15th and the events have raised almost £1m to date.
Head of Fundraising at The Percy Hedley Foundation, Louise Horsefield, said: “We are so proud of how far we’ve come in 70 years and we have the generous people of our fantastic region to thank for that. We are incredibly lucky to have generations of loyal supporters who have taken us into their hearts.
“These two fundraising events aim to raise as much money as possible to make sure our children, young people and adults have the best opportunities, state-of-the-art equipment, fantastic facilities, experiences, and specialist staff to give them the confidence and skills to live their lives to the fullest.”
The Percy Hedley Foundation has attracted the support of many celebrities over the years including Princess Diana, Jack Charlton, Denise Welsh and Amber Gill.
