The ARSC Appeal
Children who stammer have so much to say – but they need our help and we need yours
On 2nd March 2010, Michael Palin launched the ARSC Appeal for children who stammer, at a lunchtime reception at Clarence House, exactly 17 years after he opened the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children on 2nd March 1993.
We are greatly honoured that HRH The Prince of Wales has agreed to be Patron of our Appeal which aims to raise £2 million to increase the specialist help available to children and young people who stammer.
The Rt Hon Ed Balls MP, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pledged an additional £500,000 to fund the capital costs of a new Centre in the North of England, having earlier committed £500,000 to allow for the capital costs of the expansion of the Michael Palin Centre in London.
The reception at Clarence House brought together many of the key supporters of the Michael Palin Centre. Dame Gail Ronson, Chair of the Appeal, and Major General Bryan Dutton, the Chairman of ARSC, introduced His Royal Highness to the principal guests who included Secretaries of State Ed Balls and Andy Burnham, the Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow and Diana Johnson, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools. The Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks, Patron of the Charity, and Lady Sacks joined Michael and Helen Palin, together with Travers Reid, co-founder and Life President of ARSC, and his wife Sandra. Representatives from NHS Islington, Bradford and Airedale PCT and Yorkshire and Humber PCT also attended.
The reception was held in the dining room, library and morning room at Clarence House, with delicious refreshments very generously donated by Gerald and Dame Gail Ronson.
Michael Palin spoke very movingly about his personal interest in stammering, through his father’s experience. He announced the launch of the Appeal with great enthusiasm and expressed his pride in all that the Michael Palin Centre has achieved over the past 17 years.
Ed Balls opened his speech by saying that he and Michael Palin kept meeting one another in the make-up rooms before appearances on television. In fact they had appeared together on GMTV that morning to publicise the launch of the Appeal.
At the first of these meetings in 2007, Michael had invited him to visit the Centre and he had been greatly impressed by the young people he had met and the therapists who worked there. His personal experience of stammering had strengthened his commitment to the cause of providing expert specialist help for youngsters across the country.
His Royal Highness Prince Charles spoke with great eloquence of his family’s experience of stammering, through his grandfather, King George VI, and his struggle to find help. He mentioned the forthcoming film ` The King’s Speech` in which Colin Firth plays the King and Helena Bonham Carter plays Queen Elizabeth. He pledged his support for the Appeal which would help many young people overcome the difficulties associated with a stammer.
