By some miracle I have managed to secure a charity place in the Virgin Money London Marathon in April 2019 (argh, what have I done!?!).

I am running the mararon, not only to hopefully make my family proud but also because our son Harrison has autism and I want to use this opportunity to raise awareness of autism and try and break the stigma that unfortunately we have had experience of dealing with.

Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how people perceive the world and interact with others. Autistic people see, hear and feel the world differently to other people. If you are autistic, you are autistic for life; autism is not an illness or disease and cannot be cured.

I want to make people who may be quick to judge, more aware that the people you are judging may have underlying issues that you cannot see. The child sat watching their iPad with headphones on in a restaurant may not be the lazy parenting you assume, it could be the only way that child can sit at the table without be overwhelmed by the number of people/noises around them. 

The older child that still has a comforter is not being babied, it is their way of blocking out the stimulus around them that they cannot control, it may literally be their safety blanket. 

The child that doesn't make eye contact with you straight away and struggles to answer your questions may not be rude or shy but be struggling with how to communicate or process their feelings with the situation. 

The child having a meltdown is not a spoilt brat but may be dealing with a change in their routine that they weren't expecting.

The child spinning, rocking or tapping themselves or repeating a word is not doing it to annoy you, they are dealing with an overload of stimulus and are trying to comfort themselves and self calm - this is called stimming (feel free to have a google). 

A child does not 'look like' they have autism. 

The above examples are just a few we have experienced over the years with Harrison and if I can just make one or two more people more sympathetic and less judgemental by sharing my story and raising money for Autism East Midlands then the hours of training I will be doing will be worthwhile.

I am running for Autism East Midlands as they are an amazing charity who not only run a specialist day school and adult residential homes but also provide priceless support to families and individuals who are affected by autism.

If you can spare anything to support me, anything at all, it will really give me a huge boost during the long, dark, cold winter months when I will be doing most of my training.

Thank you so much.

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