A UNIQUE centre which helps the recovery of people with serious brain injuries has celebrated its first year in business.

The Neurocare Centre in Salford has now helped almost 3,000 patients -- more than 25 per cent of them from the Bolton area.

The centre offers all kinds of services to people in the recovery stages including counselling, confidence building and advice sessions as well as things like aromatherapy, massage and yoga.

People can be referred to the centre directly by the neurological department at nearby Hope Hospital or are often directly recommended by GPs.

The centre is funded almost entirely through fund-raising and charitable donations and is run by BASIC, the Brain and Spinal Injury Charity founded by Bolton businessman Derek Gaskell.

Mr Gaskell, of Regent Road, Lostock, set up the charity in the 1980s to thank doctors who saved his wife Dorothy's life after she suffered a brain haemmorhage.

The BEN has reported over the years on his spectacular fund-raising events which have included hiring Concorde for the day, bringing the Orient Express to Bolton and hiring the QE2 for a mini cruise.

Charity manager Wendy Edge explained: "When people were treated for brain injuries and other problems, things just stopped as soon as the medical treatment was over.

"There was a huge gap for what is often a long and slow process of getting back to normal. A brain injury is not like a heart by-pass, it needs intensive support and care."

BASIC also offers a national telephone helpline and co-ordinates a network of local support groups.

Mrs Edge added: "We are expanding all the time to cope with demand. We can provide specialist information and people seem to appreciate that.

"The neurology department at Hope Hospital is the largest in the country which makes us very busy. Things are going from strength to strength and we hope it carries on that way."

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