Stroke victims to be taught tai chi (From Somerset County Gazette)

Stroke victims to be taught tai chi

6:30am Monday 8th February 2010

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A Minehead based charity has won funding to teach tai chi to stroke victims.

Project Somerset Tai Chi was awarded the money from the Somerset Community Foundation and will enable five stroke clubs to have their own dedicated instructors free of charge.

Somerset Community Foundation is an independent grant-making charity set up in 2002 to support the work of local charities and voluntary groups.

The cash will be used to train five volunteers to become tai chi and qigong instructors so they can go on to deliver classes in Mendip and Wells, Heather Club at Bridgwater, Burnham and Highbridge, Yeovil and Clovermarle stoke clubs.

This is the second grant Project Somerset Tai Chi has received in the last three months.

A group spokesperson said: “We are extremely excited about this new funding from Somerset Community Foundation as it allows us to move further across the county with the project.”

The group’s initial funding, from a Neighbourhood Learning in Deprived Communities grant, allowed ten volunteers to be trained by Somerset Skills and Learning. They will soon be delivering Shibashi to various groups in West Somerset, including the West Somerset & Minehead Stoke Club and the Minehead Parkinson’s Group.

The project aims to provide tai chi and qigong classes, free of charge, to groups of people who are normally excluded from suitable exercise due to health conditions or reduced mobility, right the way across the county.

The project steering group’s next aim is to gain funding to provide instructors for residents in sheltered housing and multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s support groups across the county.

Anyone interested in having a dedicated instructor for a group or would be interested in becoming a volunteer, should call Gill Brydon on 01643-702986.

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