Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

As a very private person, this is not a story many people will be aware of:  However, with such an important event fast looming, linked to the fact that April is Autism Awareness month, I thought that this was an appropriate time to share.

My husband and I are very proud parents to 2 wonderful sons!  My eldest son achieved all his developmental targets and has recently graduated from University he muddles his way along, although fair to say he has a good quality of life and can look forward to a great future. 

Our youngest son was born perfectly healthy and began his life reaching all the ‘normal’ milestones, he was able to say Mum and Dad and was toddling relatively early on.  At 20 months old, it was almost as though a switch was turned to the ‘off’ position.  Our gorgeous son was officially diagnosed with severe Autism at the tender age of 22 months old.  We knew from that moment onwards, our life was never going to be the same again.

As a family, at this time, there were lots of difficult decisions that we had to make, his educational requirements, was just one of many. 

When Adam was very young, he attended a Nursery attached to our local Adult College.  The staff were amazing, and all developed the skills and understanding that they needed to take excellent care of our young man.  (Leaving him anywhere at such a young age was a huge wrench for us as we had no perception of his level of understanding, and as he was non-verbal, it was difficult for him to communicate his feelings with us).  All we knew was that he was happy to be dropped off and happy to be picked up.  We then had to think about School. 

Our Local Authority were keen for Adam to attend a mainstream school with appropriate support.  For his Reception year, this seemed to work.  The hardest thing for us was the feedback from other parents who were concerned about their own children’s schooling.  Our eldest son attended the same school, and his little brother’s antics were beginning to have an impact on his friendships too.   There were instances where Adam was sent home due to there being no support (which meant we had to take time off work to care for him), and we were often summoned to the school as his behaviour was becoming more and more inappropriate.  The final straw came when we would pick him up from his classroom, only to see him, sat bent double underneath the table (which was situated a distance away from all the other children); when asked why, we were told that he had been left there all day, and due to health and safety, they couldn’t lift him out.

We knew we needed to consider more specialised schooling.  We looked at all the provisions locally, but there was nothing that we felt was right for Adam.  So, we took the plunge, and started to visit out of area residential placements.  We visited lots.  Then one day, after a series of mishaps (car broke down, so were over an hour late, far too far away from home etc..) we found ourselves walking round Prior’s Court School. 

We asked for an assessment to be carried out to see if the school could meet Adam’s needs.  He fulfilled all the criteria, so all we needed to do then was wait.  There was an extremely long waiting list, so we weren’t expecting a placement to become available any time soon, so life for us all ticked along, and we watched Adam’s behaviour becoming more and more difficult as he became more and more frustrated. 

Out of the blue and just weeks after the assessment had taken place, we got the letter to say that Adam could start after the Easter Break in April 2002, he was just 6 years old.  Nothing prepared us for that overwhelming sense of loss, as we began what was to be the start of a very long journey with all the wonderful staff at the school. 

For once in his young life, Adam was treated with the respect that he is different and that it really didn’t matter.  No longer would he have to conform to being ‘normal’.   He had lessons during the day in the main school building and evenings were spent in very much a ‘home based’ environment with a wonderful set of staff and other young adults of similar abilities.  He has over the years acquired a mass of self-help skills that I am quite sure would not have been possible if he’d been here 24/7 with us!

What about us and the rest of Adam’s family?  Initially the pain of having to entrust someone else with Adam’s care and at times the resentment that they seemed to be able to do it so much better than we ever could was overwhelming; and I think it fair to say, we did struggle with that a lot in those early days.  We were contacted every day by both School and Care staff, and as Adam was / is non- verbal, they would diarise everything he did, so we were always kept informed about how he was getting on and what he was getting up to.  They had end of term meetings, which meant that our eldest son could meet up with other siblings in the same boat, and school staff always made him really welcome.

Adam still came home every other weekend and all his School Holidays, so relationships with home and family have always been excellent. 

With the help of such professional staff at the School, Adam has now ‘graduated’ and has moved onto the next stage of his life.  As it was when he was 6 years old, nothing was straight forward, and without the love and support of all those at Prior’s Court we wouldn’t have won the battle we had to get him where he is now.

As Adam is now seemingly very happy getting on with the next stage of his life, I rather foolishly thought that I would have some ‘time’ on my hands, and not wanting to get bored,  when the ballot opened for the Virgin London Marathon last year, I entered!  To be picked is relatively remote, so when I got my acceptance letter in October 2014, I was thrilled, with a strong part of me thinking how am I ever going to manage that?

With the support of a fantastic Team of friends and my husband, training wise, I am almost there. 

More recently people have asked who I am raising money for?   As April is Autism Awareness month and the 2^nd is Autism Awareness day, I felt it was time to share our story (albeit an extremely brief synopsis). 

Every penny I raise will go directly to the School to support the young people, parents and siblings, (there will be no hidden) administration costs. 

My aching legs, bones and general fatigue will get better in the fullness of time.  But for a young people with Autism, there is no diagnosis, they will not suddenly get better.

Please help me to help those young people for whom every day is a new adventure:  Making sense of the world around them makes every waking minute a set of incomprehensible challenges. 

To contribute towards providing staff with the training and guidance that they need to support parents and families like mine.

No donation too small, spreading awareness is what it’s all about.  Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.