FEATURE: New therapy centre aims to reach those who struggle to access services

The trust delivers over 80 hours of therapy care per week to local people, including patients of St Michael’s Hospice, the Conquest and The Rye, Winchelsea and District Memorial Hospital.

But after a survey suggested that a large number of people were missing out on some of the treatments provided by the Sara Lee Trust, the charity decided to build a new therapy centre in one of the most deprived areas in the locality, where mortality rates for cancer stand head and shoulders above its neighbours.

Dan Redsull, chief executive of the Sara Lee Trust tells me: “Sidley’s mortality rates for cancer are 40 to 50 per cent higher than other areas locally.

“It’s life expectancy is 10 years lower.

“It’s an extremely deprived area where the need for our services is very high.

“We did a local survey asking about the needs for our services and a lot of people said there was an acute need for our services.”

But many of those in need of help struggle to make the journey to the Conquest or St Michael’s, particularly patients in pain and left at the mercy of public transport.

So in 2015, the Sara Lee Trust decided to build a new therapy centre in the heart of Sidley, to ensure the charity could reach out to those who desperately needed its services, but found it difficult to access them.

The charity bought an empty retail unit in Ninfield Road and set about extending it, turning it into a charity shop.

Mr Redsull said: “We purchased the building at the beginning of 2015.

“The shop was an old bank which had a one tonne safe in it and a shared entrance with the flat upstairs.

“It did not function as a shop, it had been on the market for several years.

“So we needed to make it into something which could bring in income for the trust.”

Once the shop opened, Sara Lee’s third in Bexhill, the trust turned its attention to the derelict plot of land behind the building.

After successfully negotiating the planning process, building work on the new therapy centre started six months ago, with the new facility due to open next month.

On Tuesday (June 13) the Sara Lee Trust invited the Observer to see the work in progress.

Walking up to the building, it is clear that much work is still needed on the outside space, which is littered with rubble and hardcore.

“This is all going to be landscaped with space for