I've never been much of a runner - apart from escaping an irate traffic warden once, after I'd ‘liberated' his days worth of tickets… as some of you that know me might recall...

So although running 10k may be nothing to some ...this isn't something I normally do.

I put my name down for this because I want to raise money and awareness for Autism. I may choose another charity another on occasion but this time it is for Autism and this is why:

People's brains are wired differently. Autistic children struggle with basic aspects of life we consider easy, or straightforward, or logical - like going out into a crowd, or changing a routine spontaneously. But if we consider ourselves 'normal', and capable of doing such things, then we should seek to understand the difference between how we, and how someone with Autism, sees the world. 

An autistic child growing up will suffer greatly at school and further in life unless there are a set of educated individuals who can adapt the difficult situation to the way that they see the world. Part of the problem is that unless the signs of Autism are noted early on, the child becomes labelled as ‘difficult', or ‘disruptive’ - and certainly incompatible with the 'tick-box' grade system we see in our busy school system today - when in actual fact they can excel in an environment that understands them, and where they can attain in surprising ways outside those graded boxes.

In an example related to me recently: for an autistic child a background noise can become impossible to ignore - their minds latch on to listening to it, to understanding it, to receiving the sound fully ...it can get louder and louder - how are they supposed to concentrate in class? How would you? Although the experience of Autism can be different for each individual, the National Autistic Society is researching ways to comprehend such experiences and their implications: so that learning can continue in a way that serves the child best, and so that Autistic children can grow up to lead fuller, more integrated lives. In a sense from this we can be celebrating the way we are all made differently.

Your donation will help this!

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Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.