Starting Friday 5th June I will be doing 100 sets of stairs every single day for 100 days in order to raise money for

For today I'm going to start simple by answering a few questions: "Who am I?" "What is Piccadilly?" and "Who was Martin?"

Who am I?

I'm Cole, originally referred to as Mair. I'm not offended by people using my old name, some of the people I support need time to get used to change and that's ok with me

I'm autistic and have spent most of my life supporting others with autism and different disabilities. It's what I do and it's who I am, if I won the lottery tomorrow I would still show up to Piccadilly for work as soon as we reopen.

What is Piccadilly Support?

Piccadilly is a small day centre that caters to a huge range of people and needs in the Scotforth area of Lancaster.

A standard week at Piccadilly would consist of activities like arts and crafts, multisports, dog walking, bowling, music at the pub, pottery, yoga, boxing ad honestly anything the people we support would enjoy!

On top of that there's the school holiday clubs, some of the older teens join up with our adults but the younger group go on all sorts of amazing adventures

Unfortunately due to the coronavirus crisis Piccadilly has been temporarily closed. It's the sensible option to keep everyone safe but it's upsetting for a lot of us and the people we support to be so unsure of when we will get back to "normal" The uncertainty of it all is why I want to raise money for Piccadilly, I want to be proactive in ensuring that there is a Piccadilly for us to go back to even if some things have to change.

Who was Martin?

When I started working at Piccadilly I was mostly bank staff covering the school holidays, the lovely Amy who was Piccadilly's OT at that point introduced me to a woman called Abby who was looking for somebody else to join her support team. We clicked straight away and Abby has since become like another member of my family, I love her to death and hope she feels the same about me!

Martin was Abby's dad, she was very very close to him and he was the sort of person who always made you feel comfortable. He was so much like my own dad and without fail I'd end up chatting to him for at least half an hour when I was meant to drop Abby with him and then leave. He was the sort of person who made people just want to look after him, he had a whole host of us bringing him food, doing his shopping and cleaning his house on a regular basis

Unfortunately Martin had been ill for a while, he was in hospice care for his cancer when coronavirus caught up to him. It wasn't unexpected but it was upsetting for all who knew him, everyone half expected him to bounce back yet again.

Before I even met them Martin and Abby had known people at Piccadilly, it wasn't the right environment for her to thrive but Martin still remained friendly with most people there and he was always interested to hear about all the fun things going on. He would definitely have approved of this fundraiser being for him