Our son has a speech disorder associated with Autism. We entered the Speech and Language world when we referred Eddie before his 2nd birthday. Since then, as a family we've been on a journey to try to help him find his voice. That journey continues today.

It's been mentally challenging at times, especially adjusting to being the parent of a child with special needs. Despite that, our son is the happiest boy in the world and the only thing we'd change is for him to be able to communicate more. Being able to speak and communicate with others is a life skill and without that, people can struggle in later life.

The key to speech and language development is supporting it at the earliest stage possible and sadly that hasn't always been readily available for Eddie. That doesn't mean we haven't met some amazing, hard working people along the way, from speech therapists in the private and public sector to teachers and teaching assistants but identifying and supporting children with speech development needs isn't easy without funding and extra training.

The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) also continue to do brilliant work for the industry and I've learnt a lot from them, particularly their excellent Policy team but I'm doing this challenge for the charity, Speech and Language UK.

In September 2023, they published a report called 'Unheard Children', which shows there could be as many as 1.9 million children across the country struggling with their speech and language in school. That's up from the previous figure of 1.7 million, so clearly more support is needed. Imagine if your child was one of those struggling with their speech and communication.

Speech and Language UK campaign to decision makers for better support for children and their families. They also design innovative tools and training for thousands of nursery staff and teachers, as well offer online and in person advice to parents and carers. The charity does great work with the BBC's Tiny Happy People and I've also attended focus groups locally, which have been organised by them with the aim of raising awareness among all sectors working with children, so they can be better equipped to identify speech, language and communication needs and support families.

As I mentioned, finding support for our son has been a mental challenge but in early 2022, I decided to launch a physical one to raise money for Speech and Language UK. I signed up for 3 running events (totalling 47 kilometres in 42 days) to test myself more than I ever have done before.

I ran the Wolverhampton 10k in March and managed to do it in a personal best time of 57 minutes and 36 seconds, less than a year after my first ever 10k race. I followed it up with the Cathedral to the Castle event in April, which was a 10 mile (16k) multi-terrain event from Lichfield to Tamworth. I did this in 1 hour 44 minutes. A few weeks later, I completed my first ever Half Marathon on Sunday 7th May 2023. Running 21k (13.1 miles) in the Great Birmingham Run was by far the hardest thing I've ever done... but I did it!! The finish time was 2 hours, 26 minutes and 42 seconds. All of that doesn't include the training runs and hours in the gym over the course of 3 months. The challenge literally dominated my life!!

However, it didn't finish there! 4 months later, in September 2023, I completed the Vitality 10,000, which is a 10k event in Central London. It was a step down in distance but the gap between events made a difference, as I finished in a time of 1 hour 7 minutes and 51 seconds. 

Over the 4 events in total, £3,819 has been raised for Speech and Language UK! That figure is way beyond my wildest expectations and I'm very grateful. I'll be taking a break from the running events for a bit, however the cause still means so much to me and our family, so it's unlikely to be my last fundraising challenge for the charity. The issue of a lack of access to speech and language therapy and support has not gone away.

If you're still reading this and you're able to help, feel free to donate. It will make a difference to millions of children and their families. Thank you!!