Back to Basic as Charity Fundraisers Open New Facility for People with Brain Injuries

A new facility to help people with serious brain injuries has opened in Salford thanks to the fundraising efforts of kindhearted staff at an Altrincham-based motorcycle insurance firm.

Marathon runs, cycle rides and even a trek across Arctic waste lands were among activities undertaken by employees of Carole Nash in aid of the Brain & Spinal Injuries Centre (BASIC). The £15,000 they raised covered the cost of a conservatory extension to the charity’s specialist BodyBASIC gym. This now houses three high tec machines which will help hundreds of brain injured people every year to recover their balance, gait, posture and ability to support their own weight.

The new facility was officially opened by Carole Nash’s chief executive, David Newman, who himself raised several thousand pounds undertaking a gruelling expedition to the North Pole. Fellow director Simon Jackson also made a major contribution by completing the Great North Run with a team of Carole Nash employees. Other activities which the company’s staff used to raise money included a Manchester to Blackpool cycle ride and a sponsored walk from Styal to popular bikers’ haunt, the Cat and Fiddle pub near Macclesfield.

BASIC fundraiser Andy Golightly said that the support of Carole Nash staff had been vital. “We’re incredibly grateful firstly that Carole Nash nominated BASIC as the company’s Charity of the Year and secondly that so many staff got involved and raised so much money. Without them and their efforts our 450 clients would have been denied access to an invaluable facility which will improve their health and wellbeing and lead to a better quality of life.”

The BodyBASIC gym is just one of over thirty services provided by BASIC which also includes counselling, complementary therapy, vocational guidance and practical advice. Over their 25-year history they have developed into a unique, innovative and diverse organisation and are professional experts at rebuilding lives following brain and spinal injury.

Opening the gym extension David Newman said: “I am immensely proud of the way Carole Nash as a whole got behind this major fundraising challenge. It fills me with such pride to now be stood here seeing how that money has been used and knowing that so many lives will be improved by this facility and the brilliant staff who operate it. This can only add to the already magnificent work that BASIC does and which my colleagues and I have previously witnessed first hand when visiting the centre.”

FACTFILE:
BASIC was founded by Bolton businessman Derek Gaskell after his wife returned home following life saving brain surgery at Hope Hospital, Salford. Initially she was unable to do anything for herself being incapable of walking or talking and suffering depression. Over many years she made a good recovery but affected by the experience Mr. Gaskell launched Neurosurgical Research (later named the Brain & Spinal Injuries Centre) in 1986.

Today it provides counselling, information and support services locally, regionally and nationally for patients and their families. Its achievements include funding life-saving technology for the Greater Manchester Clinical Neuroscience Centre and the UK’s first specialist subarachnoid haemorrhage nurse. For further details visit http://basiccharity.org.uk.

Carole Nash was ranked as the UK’s 40th biggest UK insurance broker in August 2010 by Insurance Times magazine and employs over employs over 300 staff in the UK and in Ireland. It provides insurance for some 300,000 classic, vintage, modern, custom and off road motorcycles – around 20 percent of all licensed machines. Its market-leading status has also been confirmed by the independent bikers’ survey, RiDER Power, which has found the company the Most Used Broker in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. The company is also a leading player in the classic car sector with its portfolio also spanning modern car, van, military vehicle, travel and home insurance.