Page 350 - She's One Crazy Lady!

HOLIDAY HOME:
As you are well aware by now, Marilyn and I loved to visit Norfolk and it was in 2016 when ‘Bob’ (from All Hallows Church and who I knew through school) offered us the use of his Holiday Home, pitched at Manor Park in Hunstanton, that she and I thought how lovely it would be if Crazy Hats were to have its own Holiday Home, for patients to go for a few days to chill out – and forget about cancer. Bob’s was more like a luxurious mobile home and had everything that made it a very comfortable home. Marilyn and I did a lot of investigating and looked round the Park at homes that were for sale, getting quite excited about the possibilities, knowing we had available funds to do this.
We, of course, took information back to the Trustees and they were all up for it, thinking this was a wonderful way to help patients and their loved ones. With the Trustees backing, Marilyn and I went back to Hunstanton to meet with the Site’s Sales Team – Mikey and Bryan. This was something new to them too as they had no other charity homes on their Park. We looked at a lot of potential caravans and lodges and fell in love with the very last one we saw – it was perfect! It was modern, just under a year old and was owned by a man who commuted a lot but had rarely stayed in this ‘lodge’ (which was, by far, more spacious than some of the caravans we had been shown) – and he wanted a quick sale. Marilyn and I knew this was the one and Crazy Hats could afford it... we signed the necessary paperwork and duly rang fellow Trustees back home with the good news.
In theory, our lodge could sleep six but we kept it to a maximum of four as we didn’t want the beautiful lounge, dining area and kitchen to be spoiled. Following advice from Mikey and Bryan and other staff from the site, we put together an extensive information pack for ‘users’ and drew up regulations as to its use, agreeing that all users would pay a very small fee (and a refundable deposit) to cover some of the charges we had to pay and to remind them that we wanted it looking after!
Setting up our new Holiday Home was just so exciting! So many Crazy Hats members donated items (that we had put on a wish list) or made donations so that we could go out and purchase what was needed – we made it very homely! The Holiday Home had a beautiful, decking area at the back and we slabbed almost all of the front area to allow two cars to park. We had a wheelchair friendly ramp fitted. (With a large shower in the main bathroom, it was easy for users who had mobility issues to use
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