Holidays
Holidays for our family have always been
important mainly because my hubby and I both worked and we wanted to guaranteed
two weeks with our daughter, it was also a time for me to give my mate MS a
rest.
In the early days of diagnoses we went on
camping holidays and when our daughter started school we treated ourselves to two
weeks in France and would stay in a static caravan. However since taking early
retirement due to my MS taking a turn for the worse we have had to give grater
thought and planning to our holidays, which I have already talked about in my
‘Friendship’ post when we made our trip to WA in 2013.
My hubby was made redundant in 2015 and we
treated ourselves to a trip to Germany. I found out about this hotel when we
went to an MS road show in 2014. I have to say the hotel is not everybody’s idea
of a place to go on holiday as the hotel only caters for people with disabilities.
However for me and my family we found it ideal mainly because of the acceptance
by others, there was no staring by others we all in the same boat. I immediately
relaxed, the grounds of the hotel are beautiful and the local town is a great
place to explore and of course to eat.
Here is the link to the website:https://m.disabledholidays.com/#!/Wheelchair-friendly-hotel-property-22607.html
Having spent our holiday with other disabled
people it gave me the confidence to take our next one with the Jubilee Sailing
Trust. A friend of mine had spent many years sailing with them and had been on at
me for ages to try it out. For many it’s not an idea of a holiday but for us it
was an experience of a lifetime and we made friends for life. We sailed in a tall
ship from Southampton to Holland, the weather was beautiful. There were 40 people
on the ship all of which formed the crew in addition there were permanent
members of staff they
included a Master, First Mate, Second Mate, Bosun, Chief Engineer, Second
Engineer, Medical Purser, Cook and Watch Leader. We were responsible for keeping watch, taking the helm, cooking in the
galley and washing down the decks. Each watch lasted four hours and that four
hours would happen anywhere in a 24 hour period. We arrived in Holland and that
is when I climbed the rigging in my wheelchair! We looked around the town where
we docked, the next day we started our trip home. The three of us travelled by
train to Amsterdam and walked to Schiphol airport and flew back to Luton where
we were met by my Dad .
Below is the link for this wonderful charity:https://jst.org.uk/
Recently we have had holidays with the wider family by the
end of 2017 I was using an electric wheelchair and needed hoisting from the
chair to the bed. Our daughter by this time had left home been through University
and was now a qualified Children’s Nurse so it’s just been myself and hubby. My
Dad had found a static caravan on a site just five minutes away from him on
Hayling Island. This caravan is completely accessible and caters for all my needs
which is fantastic.
Below is the link for this caravan:https://www.homeaway.co.uk/p6485035
Hopefully our next holiday will be with ‘Flatspace’
this is a holiday home owned by Tom Yendell who is a foot and mouth painter. I
first met Tom at a disability road show. His place looks amazing and sleeps up
to eight people (which includes the sofa bed). The holiday home is based in Ripley
in Hampshire, it seems to me it would be ideal for a big family holiday. Below
are some pictures of the bungalow and a link to the website which includes a
360° tour.
Two of my friends at the Chilterns MS Centre have also compiled a list of accessible places to go on holiday but as you can imagine there has been nothing added to the list during 2020. Please see the link below:
https://www.chilternsmscentre.org/holidays/
The lesson I have learnt is never let your disability
stop you from going on holiday and having a good time, there is a place out
there that suits everyone.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
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