Generous former Goodyear workers fund narrow boat trips for MS and Alzheimers patients for next five years
Generous former Goodyear workers have bought trips on a narrowboat for MS and Alzheimers patients.
Three narrow boat trips a year for five years will give the MS and Alzheimers patients are relaxing voyage down local canals.
Wildside Activity Centre previously received £15,000 from the 5/344 Transport and General Workers Union Benevolent Fund to renovate the narrowboat Treblisa.
Wildside, in Whitmore Reans, has also been giving trips to pupils of Penn Hall Special School and now local MS and Alzheimers patients can enjoy the relaxing trips,.
The Wolverhampton MS Therapy Centre and The Alz Dementia Café also give carers much needed respite.
Chairman of the 5/344 Transport and General Workers Union Benevolent Fund, Cyril Barrett, said: “We have a long-standing, positive relationship with Wildside.
“The trustees and management committee have been greatly impressed with the vital work the charity does."
The union's benevolence funds come from sick pay left over when the sprawling Goodyear tyre factory closed in 2017 after 90 years employing thousands of people.
After five years and around £105,000 of charitable giving, the fund is starting to run low, so the union asked ex-Goodyear employees for donations.
Mr Barrett added: "Ex-Goodyear workers are some of the kindest, most generous people I have ever met. If the workers and their families can see these projects we're undertaking and say, that reflects us and who we are."
Earlier this month the fund also donated £8,500 to the Beacon Centre for the Blind for sewing equipment.
