The Jersey Cheshire Home is the only residential facility on the island caring solely for physically disabled adults, 24 hours a day. Most residents live at the Jersey Cheshire Home for around 15 years, however, on Friday 9th October, thanks to four years of care and support, a resident of the Jersey Cheshire Home left Eric Young House in order to embark on a more independent life.
Paul Rayner became a resident at the Jersey Cheshire Home in 2016 following a brain injury. Unable to walk on his own, Paul began a rehabilitation programme that would support him through the physical and mental hurdles posed by his injury. This programme has seen Paul work with a range of support staff including carers, domestic, catering and maintenance teams and of course the physio team so that Paul could begin to regain the skills he would need to be able to lead a more independent life outside of Eric Young House.
David Lord, General Manager at the Jersey Cheshire Home commented: “The whole team at the Jersey Cheshire Home has played such a vital role in Paul’s remarkable transformation. Of course, this success story would never have been possible without Paul’s incredible enthusiasm and dogged determination to succeed. He is a great character and we will miss him, but we are of course thrilled with his achievements and we all wish him the very best for the next stages of his adventure”.
Paul made the news earlier this year when he embarked on an incredible series of challenges to help raise money for the charity whilst the Island was under lockdown restrictions and unable to complete its scheduled fundraising activities. On a static rower within the Jersey Cheshire home gym, Paul rowed the equivalent distance of the Gorey to Carteret and the Sark to Jersey rowing race, before then cycling the equivalent distance from Barneville/Carteret to Ouistreham via Caen – a distance of 134.7km.
Once he had completed this, Paul continued to row the 187.4km from Ouistreham to Portsmouth across the English Channel, ‘arriving’ in time for his mother’s birthday at the end of June. Paul had hoped that his challenges would raise £1,000 for the charity, but his efforts far surpassed this, raising over £7,000 in total.
Steve Martin, Head of Physio at the Jersey Cheshire Home, completed the challenges with Paul and has been responsible for the majority of Paul’s physical rehabilitation. He commented: “It’s been a delight working with Paul, not just on his challenges but his rehabilitation in general. He has such enthusiasm to overcome his injury and works so hard to meet his goals.
“Along with all my colleagues, I’ve so enjoyed working with Paul. We’re going to miss him, and his wonderful ideas, so much, but equally, we are so delighted that he is able to regain a more independent life”.
Since Paul’s incredible fundraising efforts earlier in the year, the Jersey Cheshire Home has been able to restart some limited fundraising activity but, like other charities, is still forecasting a significant shortfall in its budgeted income for 2020.
Anyone wishing to help support the charity can find out more on the website by clicking here, or on the Facebook page.
