Sister reaches new heights to say thank you to us

A woman climbed Kilimanjaro, the highest free-standing mountain in the world, as a way of saying thank you to Pendine Park.

Claire Dickerson wanted to pay tribute to the "fantastic" care her late brother Jon Jackson, 28, received here.

The 32-year-old presented the £850 she raised to Pendine Park's specialist brain injuries unit, Penybryn, where Jon spent the last months of his life.

Pendine Park proprietor Mario Kreft revealed that he would match the amount raised and that the money would be used for the next phase organisation's ground-breaking collaboration with the Hallé orchestra.

Jon, a car valeter who lived in Moreton, on the Wirral, suffered terrible head injuries after a fall.

He underwent a series of major operations but never fully regained consciousness and came to Pendine Park in February.

Claire recalled: "Within a very, very short space of time made quite big progress for Jon - maybe other people wouldn't think so but for us as a family who had seen nine months of nothing, there was massive, massive progress.

"Within a month he could move his leg in his wheelchair and within about six weeks he'd learnt hand signals for yes and for no which gave him just a little bit more of a choice.

"We had some really funny stories that came through and when I relayed a few of them to him, a big smile appeared on his face.

"He had a silent chuckle to himself so it was obvious that certain things were getting through and that a lot of that was down to the progress he was making here.

"The nursing staff and the care assistants at Pendine Park have all been fantastic. I wrote to Mario Kreft, to say I couldn't thank them highly enough for the way they looked after us and Jon and treated him with respect."

Sadly, Jon died in hospital in May after developing a chest infection and Claire, who now lives in Nottingham, was determined to honour his memory by scaling the 19,335-feet high Kilimanjaro.

Mario Kreft was deeply touched and grateful to the family. He said: "We put a great deal of effort to provide the best service that we can to support people and their families and it is humbling when families are so pleased with what you've done, especially in such tragic circumstances."