THERE was a week-long pool party at Malvern's hydrotherapy pool this week.

The pool, at Osborne Court, is five years old and the anniversary saw a party atmosphere as staff and clients celebrated the occasion with chocolate biscuits and orange juice.

The hydrotherapy pool, opened by Princess Anne in 2000, has been a real success story.

Based on NHS premises, it is unique in its independence, generating its own income and offering the benefits of hydrotherapy to local people without the need for doctor or hospital referrals.

It specialises in aquatic therapy for people with multiple disabilities but is also a community facility. Anyone who feels they could benefit can use it, including people recovering from surgery.

"People travel a long way to come here," explained manager Victoria Leathwood.

"We're unique among hydrotherapy pools in that we're a stand-alone facility not attached to a specific hospital."

The pool, which is open from 8am to 8pm, helps hundreds of people every week and is used by residential homes, day centres, disabled groups and individuals. It is fully accessible to people in wheelchairs or even stretchers.

The warm water relaxes muscles and gives people buoyancy, enabling muscles to be stretched and exercised under water without injury.

"Putting on a swim suit breaks down a lot of barriers. We want people to enjoy coming here and we do have a lot of fun," said Mrs Leathwood.

She said you could see how much good the pool did when you saw people visibly relax as they went into the warm water.

The pool has just had a new lighting system installed, which bathes it in ever-changing coloured light and projects coloured pictures and patterns on to the walls.