One of the more pleasurable things in life is the excitement of planning and taking holidays, with many of us having the freedom to decide where we will go and what type of break we will have. However, you may have a partner, family member or friend with a disability who will have no such choice.

Like them, Lin Berwick , who is blind, has cerebral palsy and is a wheelchair user, was frustrated by the difficulty of finding suitable holiday accommodation, so she founded The Lin Berwick Trust in 1989 to address this gap in the holiday accommodation market.

After almost 10 years of fundraising, planning and hard work on the part of a small, dedicated team of volunteers, the Trust opened its first holiday cottage, Berwick Cottage, in East Harling, Norfolk in 1997. It has been a resounding success, receiving the highest accolades from Tourism for All (formerly Holiday Care) and VisitBritain, which has given it the award of Access Exceptional under the new National Accessible Standards Scheme and a 4-star rating under the National Quality Assessment Scheme. The Trust's second cottage, Denis Duncan House, in Dirleton, East Lothian, opened its doors to holidaymakers on 8 April 2006.

With your support, the Trust aims to continue building holiday cottages for the disabled in the North, South, East and West of Britain and possibly even in mainland Europe. We are now planning our next cottage in the West country.

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