Amovate and Vale da Telha Golfers Pitch In!

Amovate President Peter Johnson this week presented a state-of-the-art laptop to the CMR Sul Rehabilitation Centre São Brás de Alportel which in recent months has successfully treated two Vale da Telha residents during their recovery from serious illness.

The laptop was bought with cash from Amovate’s Charity Fund plus a generous €200 donation from the members of the Vale Da Telha Golf Society, who felt it was such a worthy cause they wished to use some of their own surplus funds to help out.

The charitable donation came about as a result from an appeal by Jacqui Lawry who spent three months at the Centre which was able restore her mobility following an unsuccessful back operation in Lisbon that left her unable to walk.

On Monday December 16, Jacqui, her partner Rickie (“Diamond”) Brogden and the Amovate President travelled to the centre beyond Faro where they were welcomed by Dr Arminda Lopes, head of the unit.

She took them to one of the rooms at the centre where all the staff of her department gathered to witness the handover ceremony, as Peter presented Dr Lopes with the laptop, applauded by her team.

It was an emotional moment for a tearful Jacqui, seeing all the highly-skilled professionals who had worked with her during her extensive and intensive treatment and rehabilitation assembled in one place.

“These people mean so much to me, they are fantastic and so caring and dedicated,” she said. “It means so much to be able to give them something back to help them continue the work they do, restoring desperately ill people to a normal life, or close to it.”

Said Rickie: “As they came round each day to see Jacqui they had all the patients’ data stored on a laptop, which was old, outdated and very, very slow. It took ages to call up the information for each patient and was driving the staff mad.

“It made us wonder if we could help because we felt we should do something for the unit due to the wonderful way they treated Jacqui and got her back on her feet.

“We thought about Amovate and the way you had raised money for Portimao Hospital and the Madrugada Charity to buy equipment after they had cared for people from Vale da Telha.

“Jaqui told the doctors there about Amovate and we asked the staff what they would like, if Amovate was able to help. They said they would welcome a new laptop with which they could all work quickly and efficiently.

“When we approached Amovate their Committee decided right away that they felt this was something they could do and should do. And it was also great news to hear that the golfers here on Vale da Telha also wanted to help out and contribute to this donation.

“We are so grateful for their support and we know the unit at CMR will value this highly and put it to good use.”

Dr Lopes provided Amovate with all the specifications required to make optimum use of the laptop, and we arranged for the full package to be loaded onto what was already an expensive model.

The doctor told us: “This laptop will mean the staff will be able to work more quickly and efficiently when seeing individual patients and really will help with their care and treatment.

“It will benefit everyone—patients AND staff, and we are so grateful to Jacqui and to Amovate ansd the Vale Da Telha Golf Society for this wonderful gift.”

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Located in the hills behind São Brás de Alportel, the Centre for Medical Rehabilitation South (CMR Sul), a former sanatorium, has improved the health service in the area of ​​in-patient rehabilitation not only in the Algarve and Alentejo region, but also at a national level.

CMR Sul carries out inter-disciplinary rehabilitation, in cases which need prolonged and complex interventions. It treats patients with spinal cord injuries, cranial-cerebral trauma, stroke and other neurological disorders, rheumatological conditions, orthopaedic, pulmonary and cardiovascular disorders.

With a capacity of 54 in-patient beds, CMR Sul provides care for an annual average of 3200 in overnight stays of varying periods, plus 44,000 outpatient consultations and sessions of the day hospital.