A BRADFORD charity helping hundreds of families and several Down Syndrome support groups at home and abroad needs to find a shortfall of £70,000 - or face cutting its service by half next year.

Failed funding bids for around £900,000 from BBC Children In Need and the Big Lottery Fund means Down Syndrome Training & Support Service now has to look elsewhere for financial help to keep expanding and meet growing demands.

Wendy Uttley, whose 18-year-old son has Down Syndrome, founded the group in 2000 to fill a gap for training and support for families like her own and now the group is reaching further out beyond the Bradford district to as far away as Cumbria, Hull, York, Lincoln and Denmark.

It has ten staff on contracts including family support workers, an information co-ordinator and youth club workers whose jobs could be affected as well as some of the services currently being run.

Speech therapists who help around 50 young people cost the charity about £12,000 and could be under threat as part of necessary cost-cutting measures. The charity is having to decide whether or not it will be able to afford to run all ten early intervention groups when the two oldest groups end this year.

“We’d upgraded our Lottery bid so this time it was for older ones but if fell at the first hurdle. I don’t think they fund the same project twice. Hopefully we’ll be able to apply again in the future,” Dr Utley said.

“We’ve had a meeting this week to start looking at plans for 2017 and what can go and what we need to keep but everything we do and want to do is deserved and needed.

“We are even having to consider if we can take more babies onboard as part of our early intervention work. Dance classes are among other activities we will have to look at possibly cutting out.

“We have achieved tonnes since we began and I was running it from home. We are unique in what we offer and we are growing bigger and bigger. We are so busy and have lots more to do so we desperately need to fill this shortfall.

“We usually manage to raise about £80,000 each year through other smaller funding bids, donations and people’s amazing fundraising efforts. This is enough to keep us running but with a 50 per cent reduction in provision.”

Staff from Skipton Building Society Commercial Team are embarking on a 17-mile walk for the charity on Friday, May 20 from Skipton to Saltaire along the canal which is expected to take around seven hours to complete. To sponsor them go to www.uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/SBSCommercialWalkers

Businesses, organisations or individuals interested in helping Down Syndrome Training & Support Service should contact the charity at its base at The Pamela Sunter Centre, 2 Whitley Street, Bingley or e-mail office@downyndromebradford.co.uk.