A new generation of fundraisers is being called for by the father of a woman who lived in a home for adults with learning difficulties.

The Kingston Guardian is getting behind Surbiton charity Fircroft Trust’s Building Potential Appeal which aims to raise £1m to turn the site of the White Hart in Hook into a 21st century home and prevent current residents from being split up.

The appeal will see adults with conditions such as Down’s syndrome able to live in a modern home with lifts, the option of single rooms and space to move wheelchairs around.

Geoff Bradman, 80, a former fleet sales manager, was one of the parents who pulled together and raised the £120,000 needed to buy Maple Lodge, in Southborough Road, Surbiton, in the 1980s.

He said: “We have a responsibility for people who are not as fortunate as ourselves. To make sure they are cared for, we need help. It was done before and now we need a new generation of people to help us do it again, as the local authorities have no facilities to help these older people.”

From the day his daughter, Caroline, was born in 1962 with Down’s syndrome, he wanted her to live as full life as possible, despite the prevailing opinions of the day.

He said: “At first I thought ‘why us?’ In those days handicapped children were put in a home and forgotten. By the time they were 20 they were dead. People ignored them. They walked across the other side of the road.”

Mr Bradman, who lives with his wife and elder daughter in Kingston, sent Caroline to an experimental project in Carshalton run by a Professor Tizard, who believed such children, if they lived together in their early years and were cared for properly, could later lead a useful life. The parents were encouraged to visit regularly and play their part in the experiment.

Ten years later, when the project ended, Prof Tizard had proved his point and Caroline moved into council-run Warren House. But only a few years later, when it was threatened with closure, parents gathered together and started fundraising to buy their first home, Maple Lodge, under the name of Mental Aid Project, which became the Fircroft Trust in 2006.

Mr Bradman said he was backing the Fircroft Trust Building Potential Appeal because of his experiences with Caroline, who turns 47 on October 2.

He said: “Thanks to Fircroft Trust, Caroline is very confident, delightful company. She lives life to the full and makes the most of the things she is able to do.

“She is very strong willed. No matter what I say to her she won’t budge. She is, in her own way, an extremely useful member of society.”

To start donating or for more information about the project visit thefircrofttrust.org/buildingpotential or call Fircroft on 020 8399 1772.

If you have any fundraising ideas call the Kingston Guardian on 020 8330 9547.

• Got a great story for us? Let us know by email here, phone the newsdesk on 020 8330 9555 or leave a comment below.