YOU may not have heard of Remap, but they’ve been hard at work in Essex for more than 50 years.

Little is known about the charity outside of physiotherapy professions, but for years they have been helping hundreds of people with their day-to-day struggles.

Remap is a team of volunteer engineers, most of whom are retired, who construct and invent gadgets and equipment tailored to a person’s disability, no matter how big or small.

We were shown the work Remap does by Peter Livingstone, chairman of the central Essex branch, a former Ford engineer based near Woodham Walter.

The team have helped Christine Barnett, of Pattison Close in Witham who has suffered from cerebral palsy for the majority of her life.

Happy and sociable, she shows off how the gadgets created by Remap which have helped to transform her life.

Because of the limited control she has of her arms, Remap built her a head stick, which she uses for most tasks.

They have made many aids for her allowing her to sit safely at the shower, turn on equipment such as lights and speakers, switch on and operate smart phones, tablets and computer mice, operate a camera, and much more than just using the head stick.

She also needs a separate one to use touch sensitive screens, so Remap not only made the new head stick, but also a storage system so that Christine can store one head stick and then move across in her wheelchair and fit the other unaided, which she happily demonstrates opening and reading her Kindle completely unaided.

Maldon and Burnham Standard:

Christine believes the ingenuity of the charity and its volunteers has changed her life.

She said: “I wouldn’t be able to do a lot of things without Remap, in the year or so since they made it all for me, they have really helped me change how I live.”

The team from Central Essex Remap, which includes 15 other engineers, have helped a wide range of people.

One success story was a young man in Tollesbury who had his Xbox controller modified so it could be used one handed after he suffered a stroke.

Peter believes it is the simplest work they do that is often the most helpful and greatly received.

He said: “There was one man we served who had one of his forearms amputated, and he wanted something he could rest his cue on when playing snooker, so we built him a wooden rest that attached to his arm.

“It only cost us around £20 to make, but he gave us a £500 donation.”

The Central Essex branch covers all the way from Harlow, Chelmsford, Brentwood, Maldon and the Dengie, the Braintree district and Halstead. Despite being a charity focussed on those with disabilities, the engineers never ask what their clients suffer from.

Peter added: “We rarely ask the question of the disability they have. We have to be very sensitive around the subject.

“We get to what the need is, and get to work.”

Visit http:// www.remap.info/Essex-Central/ essex-central.html