NEXT month could mean great changes for Braeveheart Retreat which was founded by Eve Pengelly to provide a holiday venue for people with a disability and their carers.

After nearly 10 months of solid negotiations the retreat will pass into the hands of the Gladstone Police Citizens Youth Club.

"Up until 10 month's ago I was the retreat's founder, co-ordinator and secretary," said Eve, a mother of four, three from a previous marriage and one from the second.

The retreat is a bunkhouse-style accommodation centre set up between Miriam Vale and Agnes Water on eight hectares of bushland donated by Eve to provide an affordable retreat for people with disabilities and their carers.

Ill health has forced her to hand over the books to the PCYC.

"The retreat was struggling and I am no longer in the position to continue to direct it.

"I had been working with AtoZ, set up to assist people with disabilities, and I felt there was a need for something like Braeveheart Retreat.

Eve said being in charge of the retreat has been hard work, but she was always heartened by the support she received which included financial and in-kind help.

The obvious need for such a facility and the pleasure it gave carers and those with disabilities was another reason for sticking with the project for so long.

In January Eve formally signed over the retreat in the presence of the PCYC's Sgt John Kendall and Snr Constable Peter Dixon and PCYC chairman Dion Harris.

Eve will not be severing her ties to the retreat to which she supported for nearly 16 years and will remain a member of its board.

Sgt Kendall said at the time of the signing that the original use of the retreat would not change, but its uses would be broadened.

This would include opening the facility for such activates as team building by industries, businesses and others.

More immediate plans were to erect more dormitories, more barbecue facilities, make a feature of the dam that's on the property and develop more activities.

Eve said PCYC's Queensland headquarters was sending a representative from Brisbane next month to sign final papers for the handover.