Comfort comes at a high cost for children with disabilities

THE North East has some of the highest numbers of children with special educational needs and disability in the country, and families raising disabled children face, on average, additional costs of more than £320 per month - some as high as £1,000 per month.

- By SOPHIE REVELL

Mental health and emotional well-being are at crisis point for children and their families.

The Sunshine Fund is a small North East charity whose mission is to provide specialist and adapted equipment to disabled children and young people living in the region, enriching their quality of life in ways not supported by the NHS or local authorities, and providing an inclusive future for them and their families.

The charity's vision is a North East where every disabled child and young person has access to the specialist equipment, support and opportunities they need to live with dignity, independence and joy.

Another local organisation that shares this regional pride and community ethos is The Harrison Foundation, a privately run charitable foundation founded by David and Sylvia Harrison and their family, with the intention to help make a direct and measurable difference.

Earlier this year, the charity reached out to the foundation with evidence that disabled children in the region are being shut out of school, play, community life and independence because essential mobility, sensory, communication and adaptive equipment is unavailable or unaffordable.