The Nintendo Wii has been used for a few months now in various hospitals throughout the world to help patients with rehabilitation. One such patient was teenager Natalie Cinderby who recently survived a car crash that left her left arm badly injured. She had her arm rebuilt by surgeons, and underwent months of physiotherapy to regain the use of her arm.

She was injured in a car accident last year and ended up in Morriston Hospital, Swansea. As a thank you for the staff at the hospital, Natalie has donated a Nintendo Wii so that other patients can benefit from its rehabilitation powers.

It was a big accident and I was unconscious for a couple of weeks.

When I came out of hospital I couldn’t do anything with my arm - I couldn’t do my hair or dress myself.

I’ve been having therapy ever since and they’ve been pushing me using different games and things to help me use my arm.

The therapists have been great and given me different things to do but we were having a chat about a Nintendo Wii and how it might help so I decided to buy them one.

I know that people of all ages are treated here and particularly for younger children it might make things a bit more fun.

The hospital are delighted with the gift from Natalie, as therapist Amanda Kyle states:

The gift has gone down really well with the staff and will certainly be a very useful addition to our service.

Using a games console like this can work well because it stimulates automatic movements, which is much better than the person thinking about it and trying to force their movement.

Of course, variety always helps and because a lot of people have similar games at home they can practice using the same equipment in between their appointments.