ENTERPRISING students from the Meridian School are appealing for help with producing communication passports for stroke victims. The year-12 Applied Business students have been working on a project in conjunction with Royston Stroke Club, which would see

ENTERPRISING students from the Meridian School are appealing for help with producing communication passports for stroke victims.

The year-12 Applied Business students have been working on a project in conjunction with Royston Stroke Club, which would see them produce customisable passports to help users if they have difficulty with communication.

Mandy Byrne, from Royston Stroke Club, said: "Every stroke patient who visits a speech therapist gets a communication passport, which contains personal details about them as well as other information they can use if they are out and struggling to communicate with others.

"At the moment there isn't a standard design, even though a lot of the information is the same for everyone. So I contacted the college to see if they could help.

"It's been great having the children coming in during the last few weeks. The members of the stroke club have got a lot out of it and I think the students have too."

The students have to design and produce a project as part of their course, and after speaking to Mandy decided to take up the challenge of producing the passports.

A spokesman for the group said: "We have attended several meetings of the Stroke support group over the last month in order to understand how people have been affected by strokes and how the communication passports can help them."

They have come up with a prototype design, which includes pages displaying numbers, letters, and times and dates, together with blank pages which can be filled in with details of each individual.

The spokesman added: "To be able to succeed in this project we need funding and sponsorship from businesses and any individuals who can help in this task.

"The money would go towards the costs of production of the passports and cover other expenses," she said.

Julie Steward, speech therapist for the Royston area, said she was "really pleased" that the students were taking an interest in the project.

"Communication passports are really useful. Often stroke victims have no problem understanding things, but have trouble making themselves understood," she said.

Anyone who would like to sponsor the project should contact the students via Meridian School on 01763 242 236.