The Move Partnership

This week I finally finished a new video for a charity called The Move Partnership.  It’s a mini-documentary about the work they do for disabled kids at a School called Lakeside.  I wrote about it before in “Why we must never take running for granted“.

Now that the film is done, you can see the impact that a structured combination of education, physio and other activities can completely change the lives of severely disabled kids and in doing so the lives of their parents and carers too.

This video was produced pro bono via www.pimpmycause.org so if you want to support the charity you can do so by donating at www.themovepartnership.org.uk

Why we must never take running for granted

This week I was asked to make a short film (to follow) for a Charity that helps severely disabled kids improve their movement.  I don’t think you can prepare for a shoot like this.

The Move Partnership finds ways to integrate education, health and social care to give the kids the best possible chance of gaining some physical independence.  Lakeside School provides the teachers, helpers, kitchens, classrooms and physios to make it all happen.

Getting a pass to film in a school of this kind is not for the fainthearted.  Let me explain.  How many times do you ever say “thank you” for being able to stand up, walk, or just raise a cup or a spoon to your lips?  Walking into this school with a camera slung over your shoulder looking for subjects, angles and light sources stopped me in my tracks.  And I admit it pushed a tear out of my eye.  It reminded me that no, I never did say thank you for these simple things like taking a pee unaided, rustling up a mac and cheese or putting my own jeans on.

As a runner, albeit a pretty modest one, strenuous effort is about getting sub 50m for a 10k, doing a one-minute plank or plugging on through driving rain to get home from a long Sunday jog.  For these guys, strenuous effort is what puts one foot in front of the other. Titanic concentration is what’s needed to get a single word out.  For a lifetime…

And yet there in it all, among the calipers and the walking frames, amidst the volunteer helpers and the physios were kids with smiles on their faces.  Progress for these guys is about not going backwards.  Staying out of the wheelchairs.  This is thanks in no small part to schools like Lakeside and from donations from people like you to charities like The Move Partnership.  Do give this some thought.

http://www.themovepartnership.org.uk/