REVIEW OF 2011: March and April

ON APRIL 4, more than seven years after the launch of an Argus appeal to fund it – and two decades since it was first called for – the Serennu Children’s Centre at High Cross, Newport, opened its doors.

Children from across south Gwent now have a purposebuilt centre to provide treatments and therapies for children and young people with disabilities or developmental difficulties.

The first calls for such a centre were made in 1991 by parents who believed that clinics such as Eveswell, in Newport, were inadequate to provide for the needs of families with young members growing up with a range of health and developmental problems.

By the late 1990s NHS bosses in Gwent had also acknowledged the need, while admitting that funding for such a centre was unlikely to be seen as a priority by those in control of health spending in Wales.

Late in 2003 the Argus launched the Sparkle Appeal, with an ambitious target of £6 million, which at the time was intended to fund the centre.

By 2006 the changing financial landscape meant that such a project could be submitted for funding from the Assembly and the former Gwent Healthcare Trust submitted a bid. By May 2008 that funding was approved, by then health minister Edwina Hart, with more than £5.5m earmarked.

The ‘shell’ of the centre had by now been built, the site having been gifted by Newbridge Estates, while homes were built on another part of the site. The centre is run by Aneurin Bevan Health Board, with the Sparkle Appeal’s focus now switched to helping equip the centre and enhance its facilities.

The integrated centre features physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, paediatricianrun services, and Newport council’s children and disabilities team.

The centre’s key aim, echoing the Sparkle Appeal’s ideals, is to enable children to reach their full potential, irrespective of the health and developmental hurdles they have to overcome.

One of the first children to come to the centre was fiveyear- old Jacob Wicks, from Malpas, Newport, who receives help for problems caused by cerebral palsy and Perthes disease, as a result of having had meningitis.

Previously Jacob had to attend Eveswell and the Royal Gwent Hospital up to five times a week for physiotherapy and orthotics sessions.

His dad, Jason, said the centre and its facilities would make an “amazing” difference in helping Jacob reach his potential

BACK HOME: Jan Rogers home after having a lung transplant, pictured with her son Will

March 4:

ROGERSTONE mum Jan Rogers was relishing a second chance at life after returning home following a lung transplant.

Her own lungs wrecked by cystic fibrosis, Mrs Rogers, 42, had already defied the medical odds by living beyond the age of 30 and, 15 years ago, having a baby.

But in May 2010, as her condition worsened, she was given just a matter of months to live. By the time of her operation, at Harefield Hospital, London, in November 2010, she was confined to a wheelchair and on oxygen.

Shortly after her operation she developed complications.

Her kidneys failed and husband Paul was told to be prepared to say his goodbyes around Christmas. But she pulled through.

She said the person whose lungs she received, and their family, were in her thoughts.

“That family who lost someone they love has given me the chance to be a mother and a wife again,” she said.

EARTHQUAKE HELP: Members of the International Search and Rescue Team, left to right Paul Simmons, Shaun Moody and Raz Prince, who helped the rescue effort in New Zealand

March 11:

FOUR Newport firefighters who helped with the rescue effort following February’s devastating earthquake in New Zealand returned home.

Shaun Moody, Paul Simmons, Raz Prince, and Mac Stephens, from Malpas fire station, joined a sevenstrong team from South Wales Fire Service International Search and Rescue Team, deployed to help carry out searches in quake-hit Christchurch.

The quartet spent two weeks there, looking for survivors using thermal imaging equipment and listening devices at a site in the city’s badly damaged business district, and then working to recover bodies and make buildings safe.

Mr Simmons recalled a scene of “total devastation”

and Mr Moody said humour and banter had helped get them through some dark times.

LAST-DITCH APPEAL: The Passport Office, Newport

March 16:

NEWPORT council leader Matthew Evans made a last-ditch appeal to save the Passport Office in a letter to the woman who whose hands the decision lay.

In the council’s final formal response to the closure consultation, councillor Evans warned Sarah Rapson, chief executive of the Identity and Passport Service, that staff may not be able to find equally well-paid jobs.

His letter damned a UK Government economic impact study into the closure as “weak” and “poorly conceived” with the council particularly disappointed the report excluded the potential impact on other Newport businesses.

March 23:

HEALTH minister Edwina Hart reaffirmed the Welsh Government’s commitment to the long-awaited and much-delayed Specialist and Critical Care Centre (SCCC) project for Gwent.

The centre, earmarked for the former Llanfrechfa Grange Hospital site near Cwmbran, would treat Gwent’s sickest patients.

Its future was in doubt due to the economic downturn and cuts to NHS Wales capital spending, and planning work had been delayed, then resumed on the basis of finding ways to cut the cost.

That estimated cost was to be cut by almost a quarter, to around £230 million, though Gwent health bosses were confident the integrity of the project had been retained.

March 25:

NEWPORT residents handed in a 650-name petition in opposition to the proposed closure of the Malpas medical centre.

The petition was handed over to Newport West AM Rosemary Butler to pass on to Aneurin Bevan Health Board, which had been unable to appoint a practice to run the centre as a branch. It had been staffed by locum doctors since its incumbent GP had retired the previous autumn.

A neighbouring practice was to take on patients willing to transfer, though for many that meant a longer journey to the surgery.

The health board confirmed its decision to close a few days later, with effect from the beginning of April, leaving patients campaigning for the centre disappointed.

LIFE-SAVING OP: Paul Silcox had a kidney transplant 34 years ago

March 26:

AN Abergavenny father who had a lifesaving kidney transplant 34 years ago told the Argus he still does not know how to thank the donor family who gave him the gift of life and the children he never thought he would have.

Fifty-seven-year-old Paul Silcox only recently discovered that the donor was a 12- year-old boy who died after being knocked off his bicycle.

“My son Will is 13. You think how they must have felt,” he said, adding that the transplant had completely changed his life.

He also has daughters, Carla, 26, and 15-year-old Olivia.

ABLAZE: Guy Astley-Jones submitted this picture of the fire at the Old Bake House in Risca

March 30:

PLUMES of toxic smoke rose hundreds of feet above Pontymister as fire tore through the Old Bake House, off the village’s Mill Street.

Firefighters battled for four hours to bring the blaze under control, with schoolchildren being kept in their classrooms, homeowners told to stay inside, and two properties evacuated. Roads were also closed to drivers and pedestrians.

Almost 50 firefighters from nine stations battled the blaze.

AT THE HELM: Gwent’s chief constable, Carmel Napier

April 1:

GWENT Police chief constable Carmel Napier began her tenure in the job by promising to do all she could to protect frontline staff numbers.

Faced with the challenge of a budget to be slashed by £22m over four years, she said keeping officers on the beat, and tackling anti-social behaviour to stop it escalating into serious crime were key priorities.

Neighbouring policing and the role of Police Community Support Officers were, she said, vital.

“People want visible and accessible police officers on their streets. I know it’s important to the community,”

she said.

NEW ARRIVAL: Newport County manager at the time, Anthony Hudson

April 2:

Newport County unveiled new manager Anthony Hudson, son of former Stoke City and Chelsea favourite Alan.

“We had an extremely talented list of candidates, but we felt Anthony stood out for his work rate, vision for the club and his desire to reach the very top of the game,” said County chairman Chris Blight.

The 30-year-old came with a recommendation from Tottenham Hotspur boss Harry Redknapp, and told the Argus he was here “to bring this club Football League status.”

He helped County end the season brightly, but he was gone in October, following a poor start to the current Blue Square Premier League season.

April 7:

NEWPORT was unveiled as the new home of Welsh football development, the city’s International Sports Village beating dozens of other sites for the prize of hosting the Football Association of Wales’ and Welsh Football Trust’s National Football Centre project.

Four state-of-the-art pitches, one a top grade artificial surface, were proposed for land behind the velodrome, and other parts of the site, including Newport County’s Spytty Park home.

More than £2.6 million had been secured for the project’s first phase from European and world footballing bodies Uefa and Fifa, and the first intake of talented young players was predicted for 2013.

April 23:

FOUR-YEAR-OLD Finley Ellis-Hall received a bone marrow transplant from his 17-month-old sister Poppy, which his parents and doctors hoped would stop him from developing leukaemia.

Mumand dad Karen and Mark, from Llanmartin, faced an anxious three-month wait to find out if the transplant had been succesful.

Finley had to have ten days of chemotherapy prior to the transplant – which took place at Bristol Children’s Hospital – to clear out his own bone marrow.

He needed the transplant after treatment he received for neuroblastoma, a rare cancer that caused tumours to form across his body, affected chromosomes in his bone marrow that left him susceptible to developing leukaemia.

April 28:

HUNDREDS of jobs could potentially be created through a major redevelopment of part of a Cwmbran factory site, that also signals an eastward expansion of the town centre.

A supermarket, smaller retail units, hotel, pub/restaurant, and offices are among the proposals in a planning application submitted to Torfaen council for part of the Arvin Meritor site on Grange Road.

The company’s Meritor Heavy Braking Systems division is behind the application, which could also contain a proposal for refurbishment and extension of the existing factory.

HAPPY COUPLE: Much of the nation ground to a halt in April for the marriage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton

April 29:

MUCH of the nation ground to a halt as Royal Wedding fans watched the marriage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.

As more than two billion people worldwide watched the proceedings on television, and a million crowded the parks and streets of London.

MARKING OCCASION: A Royal Wedding party at Swffryd Community Centre People across Gwent got together for parties to celebrate the wedding, amid a spirit of patriotism and neighbourliness.

The Argus was on hand to record the festivities at street parties across the area, such as the one pictured at Swffryd’s community centre.