Team Tornado will be part of #TeamOrange because Challengers has been vital to Joe's wellbeing, and indirectly our family, by providing respite. 

Our son Joe struggles, as many do, with social interaction and tolerating being around others. He has Autism with very high anxieties, a PDA profile, Language Disorder and learning disabilities, with challenging behaviours.

He has always been quite isolated apart from school and a couple of friends that he sees now and then outside of school, until he started attending the Challengers groups.  

With lockdown meaning Challengers had to cancel it’s sessions, he was gutted. Despite our efforts, spent the majority of time on his own, not interacting with any of us. He doesn’t enjoy playing games, and struggles with being the focus of attention. We were getting to our wits end worrying, and saw that Challengers were offering Zoom sessions, and we thought the usually fateful phrase; “What’s the worst that can happen?!”.

We had tried to Zoom call family, but he’ll say hello then walk off, so we fully expected this to happen, and as we joined the session, Joe was highly anxious, visibly stiff and silent. I introduced him and said to the very lovely and welcoming Sara that we may not stay much longer, or speak, but have come to say hi.

When this was acknowledged, no questions asked, and everyone was able to speak if they do/do not want to, with zero pressure on anyone. His body relaxed, a mention of his favourite topic Tornadoes saw smiles appear on his face and then laughter.

I was shooed away, and after an hour and a half, when everyone said goodbye, he asked when his next one was. He is now a dedicated attendee, with an hour and a half of belly laughs (these rarely come out otherwise), he joins in with games (unheard of away from these sessions), and conversations –he somehow has created a new game of ‘Guess what snack Joe is eating today!’. Now that his sessions are physically back, he is still an avid attendee to Zoom, and has something to look forward to, especially as now things are opening back up, he is already shutting himself away more, as he struggles to cope. 

With Joe attending the physical sessions again, it means he gets to be around his friends, and have the opportunity to just be him, in a safe environment, and it means we, in particular his younger siblings, get some respite, and they can go to places that would normally be a no-go due to Joe's needs and inability to go. 

The virtual sessions may not be the usual your child goes for, they may not enjoy them, but they may just surprise you, like we have been. Maybe it’s the knowledge that he is safely at home, can walk away or shut the screen if he is uncomfortable, who knows, but what we do know is he absolutely loves them, and we love to see the sheer joy and beaming smiles throughout. We can’t thank Challengers enough, and this is our way to be able to give back, and raise awareness and funds for this charity that has been our support during lockdown, and beyond.

Challengers is passionate about breaking down the barriers to play for disabled children and young people. They run inclusive play and leisure schemes across the South East for young people aged 2-18. Not only does this give disabled children a safe and welcoming place to play with their friends, it provides their families with vital respite. They operate a unique non-exclusion policy, meaning that no child will ever be turned away.