Gympanzees Campaign Videos

Gympanzees: Isabella's Story

As a parent of a child with disabilities, accessing fun and days out have been a challenge. Isabella has quadriplegic cerebral palsy and she's a full-time wheelchair user. As a baby, as the mum, I would take her to baby groups, sensory groups, and we'd have lots of fun. But as she got older, accessing those sorts of activities, socialising through play, exercise, all the typical things that a typical child would do, suddenly became harder.

Isabella has a wheelchair, she can't walk, and we were limited on what we could do, and there wasn't anything around, especially as she got older, sort of three, four, five, six. There wasn't anything on the market or in and about that we could actually access together, or as a family with my son George. Gympanzees is unique because all children are welcome. So from the moment you walk through the door at Gympanzees, you are welcomed.

Your child is celebrated. When we go to the indoor playground, you've got the trampolines, we're bouncing around and we're having lots of fun. She also loves the Super Surfer in that room, going down the slide ten times in one session, possibly more. If you let her you have to be quite strict there.

So there was a piece of equipment called the InnoWalk, and it's a bit like a cross trainer, but a cross trainer for children who are unable to walk, and it supports them in all the right places. And Isabella had to go on it, and she absolutely loved it. Her face lit up. That sensation of taking steps was just a joy to see.

She managed three kilometres, which for a child who is a full-time wheelchair user was absolutely phenomenal. And then you've got the calm sensory room. We tend to go there at the end of a session, the vibrating mat with all the fibre optic lights, just to chill out after working hard for a few hours. George is very excited as well, and he asks regularly when he can come back.

So even after a visit it's mummy, when are we going to Gympanzees again? When is it one of the holidays? When can we come back? The bottom lip at the end, yeah, it would break your heart.

It breaks my heart every time. When the main centre opens in Bristol, we will visit as a family as often as we can, after school, school holidays, you name it, we will be there. As a parent, it would just be fantastic, a place to come where you can socialise with other families who are in a similar situation, to share your stories and build friendships and relationships, and make friends for life.

Gympanzees: Tyler's Story

I have a son called Tyler. He's seven. He doesn't have a diagnosis, but he suffered a lack of oxygen during birth, and all his disabilities come from there. Tyler is fun.

Tyler is the love of my life. He uses a wheelchair, or a walking frame, or holding on to someone. He doesn't have words, but he has other means of communication, like communication frames or pictures. So when we go out, I always have to Google the place and see if there is a lift instead of stairs.

It's almost like a military operation. You have to get ready, you have to think ahead, you have to do the research about accessibility, about changing places. When you have some time as, not just a carer, but as a mum, we are always called a mum or a parent carer, and you just want to be, you just want to be Layla. We found out about Gympanzees through my circle of friends, who are all in the disability community.

And I remember when the word came out that there would be this massive play centre adapted for disabled children, our circle went crazy and everyone was talking about it. We couldn't wait. We came in and immediately the staff at reception were so welcoming, so nice. They explained where everything is, where we need to go, what rooms are available.

And then Tyler went straight to the dark sensory room, because that's probably one of his favourite places. And the soft play and the centre room, the equipment that worked well for Tyler. The first one was the Magic Carpet. Tyler was splattering berries, and he really understood cause and effect, so if he touches, the berry will explode, and he really enjoyed himself.

And also there were a few other children, and it looked like they were playing together, which was really nice to see, because Tyler was four years old at that point and he wasn't showing much communication with other kids, and it was really good to see. And also the other thing was the spinning chair, the egg-shaped one. It was incredible. Tyler loves to spin, and obviously when we came there were all of these things that neither Tyler nor I had ever seen before, and it was really, really exciting.

So I think just visiting for the first time was the most memorable thing about Gympanzees for me. Ever since Gympanzees came around, we understood how big the disability world is and how much needs to be done. It's all here. It's all done here.

When I see Tyler in Gympanzees, I just think that he's having so much fun. He's just relaxed. He can access all these things. They're there for him to use, and it's safe.

If there were something like Gympanzees permanently, it would be great, because you would be spontaneous, you could just up and go, and you would know that there would be those facilities that you need to get out and about with your child.

Gympanzees Campaign Videos (film 1)

As a parent of a child with disabilities accessing fun and days out have been a challenge. It's almost like a military operation and you have to get ready. You have to think ahead you have to do the research about accessibility about change in places. Isabella was invited to it.

Her best friends birthday party. It was a swimming pool party and unfortunately because Isabella is a full-time or chair user we were unable to go to the party because I couldn't physically get into the swimming pool. It was heartbreaking to say to your eight year old child. I'm sorry, you can't go to him as party.

Mummy can't get you in the water and I can't get you dry again. We found out about Gympanzees through my circle of friends who are all in disability community. And I remember when the word came out that there will be this massive play center adapted for disabled children are Circle went crazy and everyone were talking about it. We couldn't wait.

So I think we walked in and we were kind of expecting it to be very quiet and just sensory and things but there was a lot of things to do that weren't just aimed at people who are quiet. It's Bella has coach projects ever before he and she's a full-time wheelchair user she can walk and we were limited on what we could do. Gympanzees we've played in the sandpit. We've built volcanoes.

We've smashed sharks. But she doesn't know it. She's working a course. She's practicing her standing but she's having fun at the same time.

We've been on the Omni map. We've jumped and created a raspberry smoothie. We've caught all the butterflies where she can with her feet practice taking steps. We're opened up to lots of kit that we don't normally get to play with things.

We wouldn't have even thought about like the interactive sand the Innowalk and things like that, which we wouldn't get to use anywhere else Gympanzees also caters for those children who are autistic those who've got developmental delay any scope of disability and that's why we love Gympanzees because everything here is absolutely accessible the biggest difference to our life. If Gympanzees has a permanent facility would be just that we can get up and go and we will be we will know that everything is there for us the pop-ups are brilliant in the holidays are really good. But obviously they pop up in the holidays when everyone's available. The only potential downside is sometimes they can become very subscribed because can actually be Quite hard to get in certain sessions.

So I think having a permanent facility would obviously alleviate that. You brings in the brother brother relationship to have a permanent Gympanzees Centre in Bristol would be absolutely life-changing for our family. It would give us a real sense of belonging somewhere that we could come as a family with other families who are like ours but also for Isabella, she could have her birthday party at Gympanzees and all of the play is accessible to her but to her friends as well. Gympanzees is a hundred and ten percent needed they go above and beyond every single session.

Gympanzees Campaign Videos (film 2)

I am Daniel Kwright and my son is Charlie Kwright and his sister is Millie. Charlie has, cerebral palsy. Charlie's Cerebral palsy. All four limbs are affected.

Charlie is a very cheeky, young man. He has a huge sense of humor and he just loves people. He just wants to be around people, dealing with people. As long as people are involved, Charlie's happy after coming to terms with Charlie's disability.

Finding activities to do as a family is probably one of the hardest things that we have. It takes a lot of planning, a lot of research. We can't just book an activity, book a holiday. We've got to make sure there's changing places, that we can get a wheelchair there.

It's quite stressful. You've really gotta do your homework before you can go. Stephanie, we was Charlie's Physio before she started Gympanzees. First time we came to Gympanzees, Steph held Charlie on a trampoline and then someone was bouncing behind Charlie and he just laughed the whole time.

Just bit of giggles. Charlie loves Gympanzees. He loves seeing all the people here and being able to try different bits of equipment that you've never thought of. Getting Charlie to have a go on it and you think, oh right, this works.

That's amazing. I like going on the trampolines and in the soft play places 'cause it's always really fun and on the trampolines, me and Charlie can bounce together. Coming here has been great to see Charlie playing with heaps of other people to see Charlie and Millie playing together, doing activities together and to meet other parents in similar situations and trade information with them. For me, it's about getting to meet those people and swapping that information.

You just learn so much different ideas, different equipment, different ways of doing things. I think it would be amazing to have Gympanzees as a permanent fixture to be able to access everything that they have would be absolutely amazing for our whole family.