Sunderland woman, 76, celebrates anniversary of Percy Hedley School, which helped give her a better start in life

A woman from Sunderland who was one of the first pupils to attend a school for people with disabilities has helped lead celebrations for its 70th anniversary.

Jenny Young, from Seaburn in Sunderland, now aged 76, was just six years old when she first boarded the bus to Percy Hedley School in North Tyneside.

The Percy Hedley Foundation opened in 1953 with just 12 students, and now supports more than 600 people across its sites in the North East

The much-loved charity is celebrating 70 years of supporting and empowering people with disabilities this year, and Jenny was invited back to play a key role.

She cheered on pupils taking part in a cycling challenge, reflected on her time at the site, and was filmed for TV interviews.

"It's come along in heaps and bounds since I was here," she said.

"It's good to see everything happening and good to see people making a life.

"I've had a lot of lovely times. I think people think that because you're in a chair you're different, but you're not."

Jenny was the youngest of seven siblings of Margaret and John Young from Seaburn.

She said arriving at the school for the first time as a young girl was "frightening" because she had never been away from home before.

But she soon settled in with her fellow students and her parents "got a shock" when she wrote a letter to them to say she was enjoying her time at the school.

She lived in a dormitory with six beds during her first years at the school and bed time was at 6pm every day.

Her favourite subject was English and she enjoyed attending Girl Guides every Wednesday, which was also held at the school. 

"I feel as though I have lived a life and not missed out on anything," she said.

“Over the years, staff have come and gone but we have always been able to have fun with them, even playing practical jokes.”

Jenny has lived in the Foundation’s Chipchase House residential home for people with disabilities in Newcastle for almost 60 years.

But she is fully independent, regularly using the Metro to visit her siblings in Sunderland, and lives her life to the full – she was even swimming in the sea at South Shields last week, using specialist equipment from another local charity, Beach Access North East to get her across the sand and into the water.

The Percy Hedley Foundation

The charity has provided an incredible 30 million hours of education, therapy and care for children and adults since it began and now employs 1,050 people across two primary schools, a college, four residential homes, and an adult learning service.

Percy Hedley is the largest education and care provider in the north east for people with physical or learning disabilities including people who are deaf, blind and autistic.  

How it all began

Until 1953, there were no schools in the region for children with special educational needs but Molly and Stephen Darke, whose son Stephen had cerebral palsy, made it their mission to open one. The couple placed an advert in the local newspaper in 1949 appealing for other parents of disabled children to join their fundraising campaign.

The parent group used to go from pub to pub collecting donations to launch a school. There was a trend in the 1950s where pub customers would dip a penny in a pint and build tall, wide towers of the coins on the bar to donate to charity – the beer would act as a glue. Legend has it that the group used to wash the coins in a bath before banking it.

When the first school opened in February 1953, there were 12 pupils - including Stephen Darke who stayed in the care of the Percy Hedley Foundation throughout his life until he died last year. And, of course, Jenny Young who

70th birthday fundraisers

To commemorate seven decades of being at the forefront of revolutionising the care of disabled people in the region, the Foundation is asking people to get behind their fundraiser ‘Jonny Cycles to Space’.

Long-time-fundraiser for the charity, Jonny Connop, 44, from Forest Hall, is attempting his toughest challenge yet for Percy Hedley by taking on the epic challenge of cycling to ‘space’

He is cycling an average of 1000 feet in elevation every day on his bike throughout 2023, until he reaches the equivalent of space – at 364,000 ft – which is also the same as cycling 134 times up the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. 

After a two-year hiatus, the Foundation is also bringing back its flagship fundraising event - the Mistletoe Ball - which will be held on Saturday 18th November at the Hilton Newcastle Gateshead hotel.

This year’s Mistletoe Ball will be the charity’s 15th and the events have raised almost £1million to date. 

Head of Fundraising at The Percy Hedley Foundation, Louise Horsefield, said: “We are so proud of how far we’ve come in 70 years and we have the generous people of our fantastic region to thank for that. We are incredibly lucky to have generations of loyal supporters who have taken us into their hearts.

“These two fundraising events aim to raise as much money as possible to make sure our children, young people and adults have the best opportunities, state-of-the-art equipment, fantastic facilities, experiences, and specialist staff to give them the confidence and skills to live their lives to the fullest.”

The Percy Hedley Foundation has attracted the support of many celebrities over the years including Princess Diana, Jack Charlton, Denise Welsh and Amber Gill.

Who was Percy Hedley? ​

Percy Hedley passed away before the Foundation was formed and was never personally involved in any way with the organisation that would bear his name.  ​

Before he died in 1941, Percy Hedley created a trust – the Percy Hedley Will Trust – to leave all his money for charitable purposes in the North East.  After a chance meeting between the parents who founded the school and Percy Hedley’s solicitor, The Percy Hedley Foundation became one of three charities to benefit from the trust.  

Percy Hedley never knew how his accumulated wealth would benefit so many, or that his name would become so well-known in the region.​