Our son Francis is 10 years old and currently has a diagnosis of Autism, Learning Disabilities and ADHD. Francis is on the very severe end of each of his diagnoses.

As Francis has gotten older, his challenges have become even more severe and life became very very challenging for him and us as a family.

Although not officially diagnosed, it has been alluded to by professionals and become evident that Francis has some other life impacting difficulties/conditions,

Francis is very dysregulated, has very challenging behaviours and being completely non verbal with very little understanding, it is almost impossible for him to communicate his feelings.

For years we have lived on the edge, never knowing when his next explosive outburst will be, where he literally becomes a physical danger to himself and those around him.

Despite all this, when he is happy, he is happy and he has a laugh and smile that brings warmth to those around him.

We desperately sought help from public services who were unable to meet his needs long term, particularly with regards to his disregulation and violent outbursts.

The various medications he was offered could only be used for 3 months and left him asleep and drowsy most of the day, had terrible side effects (appeared to be hallucinating) with a high risk of damaging his vital organs.

We believe that every child should be given the support to reach their maximum potential and at the very least to be able to be calm, regulated and happy. As a family we were left with no alternative than to seek help privately.

We sought the services of a private Paediatrician in June 2025 and since then my son has undergone several tests and set to go through more. He has been prescribed a number of medications and supplements including Liquid Calm, Prescription CBD, Spectrum Needs Nutritional Supplement, Equazen Pro Jellies, (omegas) and Core Biotic Sensitive (probiotic). He also has to have an appointment with the private Paediatrician every 4 weeks.

Very shortly, he will be commencing (prescription ) Leucovorin and Methyl-mate (all to be funded privately)

At the beginning of November, we finally saw progress in my son. His violent behaviour has drastically reduced. My son is so much more at peace and regulated and able to access the community now to do the things he loves to do and we can now go out together as a family.

Francis has shown us that he has the ability to learn and develop, even if it is at a much slower pace than others.

With time we hope to be able to provide him with much needed behaviour/communication therapy.

So far, we have funded all the assessments, testing, medication and supplements ourselves.

However, the costs of the treatment have become way too much for the family to bear alone and we are reaching out to those who would be happy to support Francis on this journey.

7.5% of all donations to Tree of Hope in relation to this appeal will be allocated to the general charitable purposes of Tree of Hope to cover our core operating costs.

If we raise insufficient funds, or surplus funds, they will be used, if appropriate, to fund support for our child’s needs in accordance with Tree of Hope’s charitable objectives. If, in those circumstances, we are unable to use all or part of the funds for the benefit of our child, any funds that cannot be used will be transferred to be used for the general charitable purposes of Tree of Hope.