In 2025 I will finally run London Marathon raising money for the incredible National Autistic Society.

My life has always been at best described as chaotic and I've always found it difficult to function like a "normal' adult, I've always been a bit weird and on the edges and I never knew why. My autism (and likely ADHD) diagnosis changed that and over the last few years I've learnt to understand and accept myself. I am now happily amd unapologetically neurospicey and a huge advocate for the neurodivergent community, including volunteering for NAS who do so much incredible work for the Autistic community through their advocacy, support and education.

But there are so many horrible statistics around Autism, less than 30% of us have jobs, we are prone to addiction and mental health issues, suicide rates are horrificly high, and don't get me started on 'we're all a bit autistic' crap...The list goes on while we try to adapt and live in a society that all to often dismisses our struggles and often doesnt recognise how disabling Autism is.

In 2021 when I was diagnosed with Autism my life was turned upside down, I'm not sure what I expected from my diagnosis, but an unsympathetic employer who, refused support, bullied me out of my job and left me suicidal probably wasn't top of the list. Sadly that's not that uncommon and the first 6 months of 2022 will undoubtedly shape the rest of my life, but i'm sick of it being my first thought when I talk about my diagnosis. So I'm running London, selfishly because I want to create a hugely positive memory out of all the chaos that was the first 50 years of my life and certainly to counter the horrific months that followed my diagnosis and what better way is there to do that than a karathin in my favourite city? And far less selfishly to raise money for a charity that make a huge difference raising awareness and understanding of Autism in the hope future generations have a better time than I did