The Steve Morgan Foundation has joined forces with the Medicash Charitable Trust to support Mencap Liverpool with an exciting project aimed at transforming the lives of local people with a learning disability.

The Foundation has awarded £67,636 over three years to help with the project, which was officially launched during Learning Disability Week.

People with a learning disability experience poorer physical and mental health, and a recent study looking at learning disability mortality reported that women with a learning disability are dying 29 years before women in the general population and 23 years for men.

National charity Mencap are running a new campaign called Treat Me Well, calling for better hospital care and in Liverpool, the local charity are focusing their efforts on improving health, so that fewer people require hospital care in the first place.

Project Co-ordinator Charlotte Crowder explains why it’s so much harder to be healthy if you have a learning disability.

Charlotte says:  “You just don’t have the same opportunities to exercise.

“Many people find gyms and sports clubs quite intimidating and unwelcoming, or expensive –  others find it hard to get there in the first place.

“Then you see what people are eating….. many of our beneficiaries have a poor diet.

“Some rely on cheap ready-meals because it says ‘low fat’ on the packet and they don’t know how to prepare simple, healthy dishes.”

Thanks to funding from the Steve Morgan Foundation and The Medicash Charitable Trust, Mencap Liverpool are now able to offer an extensive programme of physical activities, alongside nutrition workshops, so that people can learn to prepare easy healthy meals on a tight budget.

Gosia McKane, Developments and Projects Manager for the Steve Morgan Foundation, said; “The Trustees recognised the great benefit that the Transformation project will have for Liverpool Mencap’s members and were delighted to award £67,636 over three years to help fund the salary of the Project Co-ordinator.”

To complement the physical health activities, the charity will also run mindfulness and confidence-building courses.

Chief Executive Sarah Jones explains why this is crucial to the project’s success.

“We all know that it’s harder to make positive choices when we feel bad about ourselves,” says Sarah.

“Many of our members suffer with poor self-esteem and low self-confidence as a result of bullying, discrimination, exclusion and years of social isolation.

“We need to give people the tools to help maintain good mental well-being, to help improve their physical health, but also to transform their quality of life in the long term.”

The transformation project as launched with a morning of activities at Liverpool Tennis Centre, Wavertree Aquatics Centre and Mystery Park.