We were put in touch with SAIL autism around the time our son received his autism diagnosis in August 2019. It had been an incredibly hard year and we were scooped up and welcomed with open arms. The group provided me with a lifeline as we all adjusted to what the diagnosis meant for our boy and for all of us. I was able to talk through all my feelings of guilt about not realising earlier that life had been quite so challenging for our wonderful boy. The group also told me all about their own families’ experiences. It was like doing a crash course in ASD. As well as the meetings, there were also trips and other special events.

SAIL is run by the most supportive and caring people who go above and beyond to help families like ours. The fortnightly meetings allow the teens and young adults to do a variety of activities while parents can have space to chat in the next room. Our son loved it and felt very much like he could just be himself there. Sadly, the pandemic put a provisional end to in person meetings yet the support was still available on Zoom, WhatsApp and Facebook and we received some doorstep surprises.

SAIL has just started to meet up again and although our boy now has a clash in his social calendar (so we can no longer go along every fortnight), I’d like to pay something back to the group. I hope that we will be back one day. However, in the meantime, I’d like to help facilitate support for other families. It’s hard to be a parent to a child with additional needs but groups like SAIL help you to realise that it’s also the most wonderful gift to be given a special child who sees the world in a different way to most people.

I started running in March with Couch to 5k. I still find it a real challenge and very rarely run 2 days in a row. So, I’ve decided I’m going to run 30 miles in November. If you can spare anything at all to sponsor me, I’d be most grateful.

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