A CENTRE specialising in helping children and young adults with neurological disorders threw open its doors to the public.

The Footsteps Centre at Dorchester held an open day to demonstrate how its physiotherapists provide intensive rehabilitation for conditions including cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and epilepsy.

The event on Saturday also marked the start of Footsteps’ Cerebral Palsy Awareness Week.

Physiotherapist Adam Glowacz met six-year-old Hannah Toon, who has a neurological disorder, for the first time.

He said: “The Footsteps Centre is special because we work with this unique piece of equipment called The Spider.

“It allows children to achieve positions they wouldn’t normally be able to, sitting, standing and even walking on a treadmill.

“It is quite unusual in the UK which is why we get so many patients from around the UK.”

The open day also saw Footsteps’ founder Pip Hoyer Millar receive a donation of £750 from the Lions Club of Goring, Woodcote and District to meet half the cost of a three-week treatment programme for six-year-old Sienna Steptoe, of Abingdon, who is partially-sighted and has cerebral palsy.

Hannah, from Derby has a severe form of epilepsy which has affected almost every element of her development.

She has just completed a three-week trial at the centre, and her mum says she can already seen the improvement.

Mum Melanie said: “It has been just brilliant, in three sessions she has developed three types of grip which she didn’t have before.

“It could open up new worlds to her.”