A GROUP that was threatened with closure has been given a cash boost to carry on operating until the summer.
The Stroke Association currently runs a group, called Community Integration Service, in Llandysul in North Carmarthenshire every Wednesday from 1.15pm to 3.15pm at the Youth Centre in Heol Wesley.
The group, initially known as Positive Action for Stroke, was set up in September 2004 with National Lottery cash and currently helps 15 people as well as six volunteers. It aims to help stroke survivors adjust to their condition and reduce isolation as well as increase their quality of life. Members of the group take part in a variety of experiences which includes swimming and craft activities. The lottery money ran out in 2007 and since then the group has found money through fundraising and donations. It needs about £10,000 a year to operate.
The group has been running on a month-by-month basis using emergency funds from the Stroke Association. The funding ran out in April and the group leader Chris Wheeler-Jones became a volunteer to prevent the group from shutting straight away.
Joyce Watson, AM for Mid and West Wales, visited the group in May to show her support and she also raised the issue in the National Assembly.
Now the Stroke Association has found additional money from the Jane Hodge Foundation to keep the group going until the end of July. The association has also submitted an application for year-long funding from another trust. But Joyce is concerned that the group will close down ultimately because of a lack of long-term funding. She is writing a letter to Brian Gibbons, Minister for Social Justice and Local Government to ask him to address the general issue of funding for the voluntary - or third - sector.
Joyce, who has been campaigning for better services for stroke patients and has already highlighted the issue of the postcode lottery of core services for stroke survivors in the community, said: "I am really pleased that this much-needed group can keep going for now but the fact that this much-needed service might close in the long-term is of real concern. I am aim to try my hardest to prevent that happening."
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