DISABLED children in south Gwent need your support if a vital treatment centre is to open its doors.

The building is up and the Sparkle fund-raising appeal, which so many of you have supported, has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds to provide the extra facilities which will make the centre truly world class.

But, unless a key committee at the National Assembly meeting in 10 days time decides to provide the core NHS funding, the whole project will falter.

And in our view that would be a disaster for the 1200 disabled children who live in Newport, Cwmbran and south Monmouthshire.

The Capital Investment Board will decide on September 20 whether or not to approve the £5.9m funding for the South Gwent Children's centre.

We are appealing to our local politicians and to you, our readers, to help us win the funding for this vital centre which will provide all the treatments and therapies disabled children need under one roof.

Currently children and their parents have to visit countless different venues for treatments, very often in outdated clinics which are awkward to get to. Quite simply they are no longer fit for purpose.

We have supported the development of the South Gwent Children's Centre from the word go. This centre is going to be the best in the country, it will be a flagship facility not just for Gwent but for the whole of Wales.

We realise that there are many calls on NHS funding and that the Capital Investment Board, chaired by health minister Edwina Hart will have to consider diverse bids for funding from across the whole of Wales.

No doubt they will all have their merits.

But we firmly believe that this centre is absolutely vital for children like Jonathan Jones, featured today.

Our message to the committee is simple: Approve the funding so the hundreds of disabled children and their families who have fought so long and hard for this centre will see it come to fruition.