Vicki Hedges attends Barnabas five days a week and her support worker, Gemma Orchard, has seen a real change in her since she started attending seven years ago.

Gemma says: 'Vicki has cerebral palsy, although her condition is significantly more apparent than in many of the other people who come to Barnabas. Vicki is unable to walk or speak and from time to time suffers with breathing problems, but she still shows us exactly what she wants to do and what she enjoys!'

'Vicki loves the hydrotherapy pool; anything where water is involved brings a smile to her face so we make sure this is built into the activities that we do regularly. She also loves relaxing in the sensory room and we take Vicki to ‘Sailability’, a programme which enables people with disabilities to enjoy sailing.'

'Another favourite activity of Vicki’s is having her nails painted!' Gemma adds.  'She loves to be around different people and is really sociable. She has a great sense of humour and finds it hilarious when people do silly things like dropping something.'

Vicky lives at home with her foster sister who also has complex needs. Their foster mum, Avril was nominated - and won - ‘Mum of the Year’ on GMTV.

Gemma concludes: 'It’s easy to think that, for people like Vicki who have profound disabilities, no matter what you do, she will not be aware. It’s simply not true. Services like Barnabas make such a tremendous difference to people like Vicki; it’s so difficult to put into words.'