Beth and Grace

Beth only has a few convential words and uses Makaton to communicate. But Beth is far from limited; she enjoys music, food, exploring and activities that push the boundries of her ability. So a visit to the Exmoor centre was a must do.

Grace has been supporting Beth for 3 years, and told us: “Beth teaches me more than I could ever teach her, being able to live someones else’s life with them is the most extraordinary thing.”

After their visit, Grace contacted the centre to pass on her thanks and provided an open and honest story…

“I have to write to you as it was the most incredible week and I have so much to thank you all for.

Firstly, I was quite dreading this week as I was going to be on shift solidly for 5 days and based on experiences of “accessible” events before, it was going to be quite a tiring week but from the moment we stepped through the door, I was quickly proved wrong.

The staff were friendly, attentive and professional. We had to ask for a few accommodations/items that we forgot to bring and we had hoped that we didn’t come across fussy but everything we asked for was dealt with privacy and subtly.

This is something that is completely invaluable and made us so comfortable and welcome and made it much more comfortable for Beth to be there!

A quick list of things that were wonderful was; the food/drinks, the consistency of timings everyday made a lovely routine for us and Beth – for all the guests I’m sure it played a vital role in the success of the week, the reception staff, the stables staff were gentle, kind and friendly which calmed my anxiety of Beth being on a rather large horse, the cleanliness of the place, the peacefulness etc etc I could really go on for pages.

Our activity leader was Jon, we had a rather small group which worked in all our favours as the three guests really got close attention. Jon was brilliant and I really cannot rave about him enough.

All of our friends/support workers had doubts of our people doing most of the activities but Jon quickly proved us wrong!

Beth went abseiling…! I mean it’s a hard thing for Beth to focus walking down stairs but for her to walk down an almost vertical wall was completely emotional to watch her achieve something even I had limited her to not being able to do.

Every activity Jon had for us was dealt with professionalism and with ease.

There was quite literally no hurdle for any of our team, and 2 of the gentlemen were quite immobile in their chairs so for them to do canoeing and bike riding etc it was just a thought that I could never have fathomed and we can’t thank Jon enough for involving all the guests equally and enthusiastically.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

It was the most wonderful week and I have so many things I could talk about for hours that amazed me but I won’t bore you anymore as I’m sure you get it all the time. Just thank you thank you.

We will definitely be back, and I really hope to bring my sister who I just know will fall in love with the place as much as I have.”