The Percy Hedley Foundation is a practical charity whose purpose is to promote the rights, needs and aspirations of disabled children and adults through specialist high quality services. The charity started in 1953 as a special school, the result of a campaign by parents who saw the need for community based provision for children with cerebral palsy. The Foundation is now one of the UK’s largest regional service providing charities and helps in excess of 1,000 disabled children, adults and their families every year. The school in Forest Hall, Newcastle welcomes children with Cerebral Palsy from as far away as Berkshire.

Worldview Spaceflight are delighted to donate an astronaut training experience to the foundation to be auctioned off to raise funds at the end of November. The lucky winner will be whisked off to experience Phase 1 of the Spaceflight Preparation Program. They will take part in a simulated launch in the centrifuge and be trained to fly to Space in a high performance aerobatic aircraft, with a ex-Red Arrow pilot for an instructor.

It is hoped that the auction will raise in excess of £10,000 with funds to be used to purchase a brand new Hydrotherapy tank for the Percy Hedley School. Des Bustard, who is the foundation's Director of Fundraising said, "The new tank will allow disabled children and adults to learn how to move their limbs by removing the burden of weight". A similar sensation to how Astronauts in Space feel due to weightlessness.

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