A well-known Herefordshire charity is moving out of its home of 15 years.

Megan Baker House, which helps children and adults with conditions such as cerebral palsy and Parkinson's disease, will instead use hired premises around the area to deliver outreach services.

It will, though, keep its centre in Orchard Lane, Ledbury, which caters for users from the south of Herefordshire, north Gloucestershire and beyond.

Charity chief executive Lee Gough said it has been a "tough decision" to leave its centre in a converted barn at Moreton Eye, near Leominster, at the end of August.

But the difficulties of raising the £350,000 a year the charity needs to operate made it vital to find ways to deliver its services with greater efficiency and flexibility.

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She said: "We have decided not to renew our lease at Moreton Eye, instead focusing our energy into creating a bright future via outreach centres that will reduce greatly our overheads and ensure that even more of our income is spent on helping the children, adults and families that cannot access the services they need anywhere else.

"We have always aimed to go above and beyond expectations by providing the best, life-changing services we can, but the environment in which we operate has changed over the last 17 years since our inception. Raising the £350,000 we need each year has become ever more difficult and so we have needed to become more efficient to get best value from the income we receive."

The administration of Megan Baker House will move to Brightwells in Easters Court, Leominster.

John Gough, operations manager of the charity, said the change to move to outreach services reflected the needs of users.

"We've found that over the years people don't want to drive so far. This is the way forward for us. It means we can go where the people who need us are; we can be closer to the major populations."

Mrs Gough added: "We have a truly wonderful team here at Megan Bakeer House, including our trustees, of course, and they are all excited to be writing this new chapter in the charity’s history.”

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The charity was started in 2002 by Jo and Dave Baker, whose daughter Megan had cerebral palsy.

Sadly, within a few weeks of it opening, Megan died. After much soul searching, Jo and Dave decided to continue with the work helping children with motor difficulties that they began in memory of their daughter.

Over the years more than 400 children have received help from the charity, which prides itself on seeing a child’s ‘ability’ – not disability.

Many, who it had been expected would never be able to do anything for themselves, have been able to learn to feed and dress themselves, go to the toilet on their own and even walk.

Many have been able to move into mainstream schooling due to the skills learned at Megan Baker House.

In 2018 Hereford Times readers raised £35,000 to help the charity transform the lives of 10 children.