Charity celebrates cash boost

AN East Anglian based charity dedicated to improving the lives of people with severe disabilities is celebrating a £210,586 windfall that will enable it to take giant steps forward.

The Sudbury-based Lin Berwick Trust has been awarded the money by the lottery backed Community Fund.

The handout will go towards building a second specially adapted holiday home for those with severe disabilities and their careers.

Cerebral Palsy sufferer Lin Berwick, who is wheelchair bound and blind, formed the trust after her own bitter experiences made her determined to help others.

In 1997 the trust opened its first holiday home for the severely disabled in East Harling, Norfolk, at the cost of £180,000.

Mrs Berwick, who was awarded an MBE earlier this year for her dedicated work helping others, aims to set up a network of holiday homes across the country and another abroad.

The £210,586 grant will be spread over two years and will be used to build the trust's second holiday home in East Lothian, Scotland.

It will be built on the estate of the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton in the picturesque Dirleton.

The home will be known as Dennis Duncan Cottage after 81-year-old Church of Scotland minister Rev Dennis Duncan, a tireless campaigner for the Lin Berwick Trust.

A delighted Mrs Berwick said last night: "When I received the telephone call telling me that the Community Fund had accepted our grant application, I was just incredulous.

"Although much of our income is derived from personal donations and fund-raising events from around the country, this has given our campaign a fantastic leap forward.

"We are moving steadily towards my vision of opening three holiday properties in this country and one abroad.

"This lottery grant means that the opening of our first property in Scotland – specially equipped to provide wonderful holidays for people with severe disabilities and their careers – is now very much within sight."