Punchline-Gloucester.com has been given an exclusive tour of The Chamwell Centre at Longlevens, Gloucester.

The Chamwell Centre Charity is designed to enable disabled children and adults with additional needs throughout Gloucestershire to overcome disability by providing accessible leisure facilities, sports, group, and social activities.

Built on The MIlestone School campus following a £5.1 million fundraising campaign around five years ago, this purpose-built accessible centre encourages and supports an integrated, inclusive community hub.

Watch Dame Janet Trotter, chair of the board of the Chamwell Charity Trust,  give us a guided tour of the centre as we bumped into staff and children taking part in an Easter egg hunt.

The centre includes a 15 metre hydrotherapy pool which costs £300 for every hour it runs as it needs to be kept at a particular temperature and have specialist lifeguards.

The centre also has the Pied Piper Playground and a charity café which is a community hub open every day for everyone.

Dame Janet said: "Many people just don't understand the reality of life for parents who have got disabled children or children with additional needs and we want to be a society which includes able-bodied and disabled children. It's about being inclusive. Everything is trying to do things that are fun."

Dame Janet said they were always in need of more funds to keep the facilities up to scratch.

Ria Heap, the Chamwell Centre's fundraising manager, said: "I'm really driven to try to raise the money that we need to keep the centre to the high calibre that it is. It's incredibly expensive. Everything is kept spick and span but our facilities aren't cheap.

"If anyone wants to do some fundraising, I would be very grateful. We want to get the word out, not just for the fundraising but to let the disabled community know we're here."

Anyone interested in helping out with fundraising for the Chamwell Centre should contact Ria at Ria.Heap@chamwellcentre.org.uk 

For more information on The Chamwell Centre, visit chamwellcentre.org.uk