It started with a caravan, a kettle and a family who needed a week off.

The first break we ever arranged wasn’t a programme, a project or a plan. It was a borrowed caravan on the coast, offered to a family whose whole life had shrunk to hospital corridors and care routines. They came home different — lighter, laughing at things again, able to face the next round of appointments.

The people who lent that caravan couldn’t stop thinking about it. If one week away could do that for one family, what could a charity built around breaks do for hundreds? Give Us A Break was registered soon after, with a deliberately simple purpose: fund short breaks for families who are running on empty, and make the asking as easy as possible.

“We don’t fund luxuries. We fund the ordinary things exhausted families have stopped being able to imagine — a beach, a walk, a lie-in.”

Today the charity works through referral partners across the UK, and our supporters fund breaks in two ways: straightforward donations, and a £1-a-week lottery that turns small change into time away — run carefully, transparently and for adults only.