A CARING student from Orford is set to embark on a pioneering path to help others.

Rebekah Wilkinson, aged 21 of Gough Avenue, will graduate from the BA (Hons) degree course in conductive education, in Birmingham, this month.

She is set to become one of a handful of students entering a new profession helping disabled people gain the skills and confidence to lead more independent lives through a new approach called conductive education.

Rebekah trained alongside Canadians, Germans and South Americans to become a 'conductor', someone specially trained to deliver conductive education - a unique teaching system designed to help people with movement disabilities such as cerebral palsy, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis become more in control of their bodies. The method, which originated in Hungary, follows the philosophy that all people, no matter how disabled, can learn.

A former student at Culcheth College, Rebekah volunteered at play schemes for children with special needs before beginning the course, which is run jointly by the National Institute of Conductive Education in Birmingham and the University of Wolverhampton - and the only one of its kind in the UK.

Conductors are now in demand at more than 30 centres in the UK and more than 150 worldwide.

Rebekah, who will specialise in working with children when she graduates, said the course was a challenge.

She said: "You have to be very committed. You have to know that it is really what you want to do, but the atmosphere is great. I got to know the children really well and because it was such an intense experience I made really good friends."

For more information on the BA (Hons) conductive education call 0121 449 1569 or email foundation@conductive-education.org.uk