The Jason Clarke Foundation, a small charitable organisation set up to support persons with Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) and stroke, and who have three charity shops in County Donegal, in Ballybofey, Stranorlar and Letterkenny, are shortly to embark on one of the most ambitious fundraising projects ever undertaken in the North-West.

In conjunction with “First Step Rehabilitation”, the Foundation are setting out to raise funds for the purchase of a unique robotic walking machine known as “the Lokomat”, only the third of its kind ever to be installed and used in Ireland. This unique and amazing machine has proved invaluable in assisting persons with brain trauma and other neurological problems to walk again.

This machine featured on the “Late Late Show” on RTE last May and aroused a great deal of interest once its unique prowess was demonstrated. Designed in Switzerland to a very high standard, when used intensively, it can make a huge difference to persons suffering from brain trauma and various neurological problems.

The new campaign which is being spearheaded by Danny McIntyre from Ballybofey, the main coordinator for the project in the North-West, is sure to attract a great deal of attention once launched and Danny feels that the benefits of this machine to people in a area covering Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Derry, Tyrone and further afield, will be incalculable.

He said, “We plan to start this campaign very shortly to provide this much needed machine in a new clinical setting in County Donegal where intensive daily therapy can be provided to children and adults who need this urgent service”.

The Jason Clarke Foundation was developed in the name of Jason, son of RTE’s “Simply Painting” artist, Frank Clarke. Jason received a serious brain injury in 2000 and has since undergone various Rehabilitation treatments in Ireland, China and Russia. A significant part of Jason’s current problems arise from the fact that he could not secure intensive Physiotherapy when he needed it most of all, in the critical months following his injury. Unfortunately, little has changed in the past nine years in this regard and there are many similar cases with the same experiences today.

The fundraising drive starts in the near future and donations large and small can be made to bank account number 35526758, sort code 90-54-24 at any Bank of Ireland Branch, using reference “Highland Lokomat”.

General assistance from any group interested in helping out with the fundraising will be appreciated.

This is a “once-off” capital project in order the purchase the machine so there is a start and finish to the project. However, the benefit to persons with significant needs who will use the machine will go on for many years to come.