I’m running 10K for Autism East Midlands🏃‍♂️

In December, I’m taking on the Carsington Water 10K to raise money for Autism East Midlands - and this one means a huge amount to me and my family.

I’ve worked with many people with neurodiversity over the years, but when it became my own 8-year-old son who was facing hurdle after hurdle, it became something much more personal than I could ever have anticipated.

For a long time, as parents, we always felt there was something different about the challenges we were facing. Over time, those challenges began to affect his mental health and self-worth. He felt different from everyone else, and heartbreakingly, this led to him hurting himself.

It wasn’t just him who was affected. His older and younger siblings witnessed what was happening and, in their own ways, tried to support him too.

We spent a long time knocking on doors, trying to find the right help. There were endless battles to get him assessed and diagnosed - partly because we desperately needed people to understand that this wasn’t just a phase or something he could simply “get over”, and that he needed the right support.

Eventually, he received his autism diagnosis, and he is now waiting for his ADHD assessment.

But one of the things that really stands out to me about Autism East Midlands is that they support neurodivergent children and families whether they have a diagnosis or not, through their neurodivergent hubs and many other forms of support.

Getting my little boy’s diagnosis has made a huge difference because it has helped him understand himself, and it has helped us as a family understand how we can support him.

He’s learning that autism isn’t something that makes him “less than” anyone else. It’s part of what makes him uniquely him - his incredible attention to detail, his passion for caring for animals, and his ability to absorb an extraordinary amount of facts about the world (and, particularly, animals! 🐾).

That’s why I’m running this 10K.

I want to raise money for Autism East Midlands and contribute, in whatever small way I can, to the amazing work they do supporting neurodivergent individuals and the families around them (with and without diagnoses)

If you’re able to sponsor me, I’d be incredibly grateful. Every donation, big or small, will help support that work. ❤️

And finally… there is the small matter of the 10K.

I have run this far before and running used to be a big part of my life. Unfortunately, that was a while ago, and my current relationship with running could best be described as “complicated”. 😂

So please sponsor me, wish me luck, and keep your fingers crossed that somewhere there is still a 10K runner hiding in me!

Thank you for supporting me, my family, and Autism East Midlands. 💙

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