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I am running 7km for the 700,000 autistic people living in the UK on the 7th April. My main aim is to raise awareness of autism, especially autism in younger children. 

As some of you know Parker is currently on the social communication pathway and enroute to a diagnosis of autism. Parker is mainly non-verbal and his communication and interaction delays make it very hard for Parker to socialise with others. He will often miss bids for interaction from other children... but on the other end of the scale he can misinterpret social cues and hit or push others. His difficulties make it incredibly hard for him to experience every day things in the same way that other children his age do, and he can struggle daily. And as a family some times we struggle. We have had to learn to adapt and learn on the go. Learning what can trigger meltdowns and how to avoid them. As a first time parent I had no idea what I was doing anyway, but throwing a dose of autism in there meant I had even less of a clue. The route to diagonsis is long and the process for getting funded 1:1 educational support (which he needs greatly) is also long. I believe early help and identification of such disabilities is essential; that way our children can enter school with the help they need and deserve. So many children go into school without the tools and capabilities to access the curriculum, which sets them up to fail. Health professionals need to be more informed about the early signs of autism and more readily available to help.

The National Autistic Society help support families in many ways. They support over 100,000 children in educational settings each year. They run support groups for parents and carers and they have centres for children and adults with autism to socialise with others. Charities are great but they run off donations. So although the main aim of this run is to raise awareness if you'd like to help support this organisation there is a link on this page.

To end on a positive, for those of you who don't know Parker, he is one of the most loving little boys and really intelligent, he is the best and I wouldn't change him for the world. Autism and all. It makes Parker, Parker.

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