There had been a STROKE CLUB of some sort or other in the Wigan area for some years but to the best of our knowledge it never had a plan or a programme of activities/events and consequently, its attendance dwindled to as low as two people. In the year 2000, however, the group was revitalised by a group of like minded people getting together, forming an active management committee and putting together a constitution and a business plan. On the strength of this it was awarded a start up grant from the Coalfield Challenge Trust to encourage it to grow and we were on our way.

It all sounds very simple just to write down the start of the group in a couple of paragraphs. I can assure you it was much more difficult than that. There were many meetings/discussions/arguments even, but when we got that first grant of £1,000 it felt like we had won the lottery.

The group met in the early days in the small boardroom at Sunshine house (max seating number of 12 people) and as the group grew, we graduated into the main hall which seated about 50 people and having outgrown that we now currently meet at St Peters Pavilion in Hindley.

Since those early days, we have grown into what you see today, but we still keep to the core values that we set out with which are listed in our constitution.

We currently employ a number of people to help run various projects throughout the group and the cost of employing is funded by various Lottery grants, donations and our own fund raising activities.

Mike Aspinall - Chair