DISABLED children will have fresh hope of mobility when a new centre opens in Eccleston at the end of this month.

Rainbow house, off Langton Brow, is the project of Mawdesley mum-of-two Joanne Mawdsley, who wanted to set up a conductive education centre in Chorley.

She said: "Conductive education is a form of physical therapy from Hungary. It can be used for adults with multiple sclerosis, stroke victims, if they are paralysed, children with cerebral palsy. And it can be used for all sorts of neuro muscular diseases."

Her own children, aged three and four, who suffer from a metabolic disorder, have been seeing a Hungarian conductor regularly for about two years for help with mobility and balance. Joanne prefers to keep them out of the media spotlight, but admits they have been her inspiration.

"I see how hard they struggle and they are such happy children. I just feel that now is the time to make things easier. I think all this is really for my children."

She set up a private conductive education centre for her children and one other child in Mawdesley, but when their conductor moved on she decided to set up a new centre.

And hubby Andrew's building firm had a suitable site in Eccleston. "He said that he was building it and he had already had another firm lined up to rent it, but I begged him, 'please give me a chance'."

Andrew agreed, and the centre is due to open in just a few weeks. And because of the shortage of qualified staff for conductive education, Joanne is being helped by national charity the Lee Sykes National Centres -- which aims to provide free conductive education for children with cerebral palsy.

The charity are about to open a centre in Birkenhead and felt they could not leave Joanne high and dry after poaching the conductive educator who had been visiting Mawdesley.

Syd Sykes, the charity's founder, said they aim to provide a full-time conductor for the Eccleston centre. "I have never met a girl like Joanne," he said. "Nobody ever thinks about getting up and doing it, but she has done.

"It is a miracle that she has had time to open a centre."

As well as running two sessions of conductive education a day, Rainbow House will also house a range of complementary therapies for adults as well as children.

And eventually there will be a database and information centre for parents of disabled children.

Joanne can be contacted at Rainbow House on 01257 452511.

GIVING hope: Jason Kwok, Lee Sykes National Centres North West fund raising manager, with Joanne Mawdsley and Syd Sykes at Rainbow House.