An Illuminating Day

‘My best day working at Gray Healthcare was a day trip to Blackpool with a gentleman we support.  The team and I never thought for one moment that we would actually make it to Blackpool, but we did, and it was such a fantastic day!  This person we support is schizophrenic. He will always say ‘yes’ when we suggest an outing and, because he likes detail and routine, we always do our homework and plan each outing to the ‘nth’ degree.

So, after all our careful planning, the day of our Blackpool trip finally arrived! We headed off for the station and as soon as we arrived in Blackpool we had some lunch. We then went to the arcades, walked along the beach and ate an ice-cream in the ice-cream parlour. We sat on the beach and watched the waves – to see the joy on his face from this simple pleasure, and to know that we had made it happen, was such an amazing feeling.  During the trip, he even spoke to people he didn’t know and spent the entire day laughing and smiling.  He achieved so many new things in one day – it was just wonderful.

We finally made it home at 8pm!’