All Things Autism – Maria Cook, Autism Support Crawley.mp3
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Speaker 3
00:02 – 00:18
Hello, this is Anna Kennedy. We’re talking all things autism and we are still in COVID times and we’re promoting mental health and well-being. So a bit of a stressful week last week for myself and Angelo. Angelo’s really suffering with his teeth.

Speaker 3
00:18 – 01:02
We’ve been waiting two and a half months now for an appointment at Guy’s hospital because he needs a general anaesthetic and because of Covid you’re not allowed to go to the dentist, you’ve got to go through NHS 111 and then from NHS 111 they decide whether or not you can have an emergency appointment and go to a local emergency hub. So we tried that quite a few days ago, they’ve put him on antibiotics but they haven’t worked and he’s really suffering. So today I put my foot down and I was ringing Guy’s, I was ringing the NHS 111 around Whittington Health Centre I just thought I can’t bear to see Angelo go through any more pain he’s just so it’s just he’s not like his normal self so I finally

Speaker 3
01:02 – 01:37
managed to speak to someone who said they’ll see him this afternoon however they’re going to try and do fillings without any medication or anything so I’m not sure if it’s going to work but hey-ho like our children and adults sometimes things do work I’m keeping everything crossed because I can’t bear to see him in pain anymore. So I just also wanted to announce that we had fantastic posters that came in to us for VE Day to our charity. There were some amazing posters and it was so difficult for our judges to choose the final three and the winner was Evie Rutherford.

Speaker 3
01:36 – 02:24
second place with Jessica Mould and third with Andrew Mock and they all received a Born Anxious t-shirt and Evie received a Amazon voucher for £30 so their posters are on the charity website if you want to check them out it’s www.annakennedyonline.com we’ve got another competition coming up very soon and it’s keep checking on the website and then you’ll see what it’s all about so if you want to enter I’m trying to think whatever we can to raise further awareness and autism so today my guest is the lovely Maria Cook I’ve known Maria for quite some time now and I’m patron to her charity but before we talk about autism I’d like to welcome Maria and I believe Lee Cook is in the background too hello gang

Speaker 2
02:25 – 02:41
Hi Anna, yeah, Lee’s doing some housework at the moment, believe it or not. I’m just keeping an eye on him at the moment, just making sure he’s doing it right, bless him.

Speaker 3
02:43 – 02:47
Got a nice place. So, how are you? How are you doing?

Speaker 2
02:48 – 03:09
We’re okay, we’re safe and well. Today is an inset day because we really struggle on a Monday. Mondays are really weird because We’re obviously not going anywhere right now. So we’re following the directors and we’re staying at home and doing everything we need to do.

Speaker 2
03:09 – 03:25
And, you know, come Friday afternoon, it’s technically the weekend. And so we then have our weekend head on. But then come Monday morning, we’ve got to get back into that week routine, the home learning routine. And I really struggle with that because we haven’t gone anywhere, you know?

Speaker 2
03:25 – 04:00
And then one day, I mean, I’m sure we’re all feeling the same. One day is just rolling into the next, you know? And after times I wake up and I think, It’s just the most bizarre feeling and You know, having Leah at home all the time as well, you know, we’ve had to completely change what was the normal into a new normal and a completely different routine. And, you know, making sure any anxieties that we are feeling, Ryan doesn’t pick up on because we can’t afford to have him feeling anxious.

Speaker 2
04:00 – 04:01
Oh, hello.

Speaker 3
04:01 – 04:04
Oh, hello, Ryan. I can hear you. You can hear him in the background, yes.

Speaker 2
04:04 – 04:19
So, are you going out for walks? Yes, we go out for a walk. He’s trying to be Mr. Tumble at the moment. Yeah, we go out for our safe walk every single day.

Speaker 2
04:19 – 04:43
And that’s something that we found was very important to build into that routine for him. And, you know, I know legislation was changed slightly for families like us that we could actually access going out in the community more than once a day, but we found once was enough for him. And, you know, we built a routine around that. We’ve got the route that we go.

Speaker 2
04:43 – 05:11
We always go through a park and take, you know, a ball with us to play with and a little catch game just to, you know, we’ve got fit bits now as well. I know, but you know, we felt we had to do something like that because as a family, we are very, very active. And, you know, being out and about, being active, you know, was always part of our routine at the weekends and school holidays. And then obviously, we couldn’t take Rowan swimming anymore.

Speaker 2
05:11 – 05:21
You know, we couldn’t You know, he loves a zip slide at the park. We couldn’t do that anymore. We need to keep ourselves active for our physical and emotional well-being.

Speaker 3
05:22 – 05:31
Yeah, and the thing is, normally with our children, we have to prepare them with social stories or whatever it is that works for our kids. We weren’t given any warning, were we?

Speaker 2
05:32 – 05:59
It’s just… You know, and that’s what really, I really struggled on Friday the 20th of March when I picked Ryan up from school and he was presented with a letter and the headteacher could, you know, you could see in his eyes that could potentially have been Ryan’s last day at school and I completely fell apart because he’s year six. And, you know, we were putting together such a a detailed transition plan for him to move up to the to the college come September.

Speaker 2
05:59 – 06:15
And then when you’re presented with this letter and you see in the eyes of the headmaster, I don’t know whether we’re going to see you again. You know, I fell apart. And yeah, it’s so that’s what I’m just like, we need to keep ourselves going and keep motivated. But Monday is always an inset day.

Speaker 2
06:16 – 06:27
I held my hands up to the school because we get our weekly well-being checks. I can’t do it on a Monday. No, it doesn’t matter. I’m a bit like Bob Geldof from the Boondown Rats.

Speaker 2
06:27 – 06:28
I don’t like Mondays, you know.

Speaker 3
06:30 – 06:34
Tell me a little bit about you before we talk about autism. So who is Maria?

Speaker 2
06:34 – 06:41
Who is Maria? Well, Maria is… I’m 43, aren’t I? Yeah, I’m 43.

Speaker 2
06:42 – 06:52
And I’m an only child. No brothers and sisters. I’ve got a very, very small family. In fact, it’s only just my mum now that I’ve got.

Speaker 2
06:53 – 07:16
And I was born and brought up in good old South London. I’ve learned to talk a little bit posher now I live in Crawley. Why did you move to Crawley? Like I say, I was born and brought up educated in London, but my grandparents all lived down near Eastbourne on the south coast.

Speaker 2
07:17 – 07:40
And then when they all passed on, obviously there was houses there for us, so we just were like, let’s up sticks, get out of London, let’s move down to the coast. And that’s why I then started, I’d left college and I started working at Gatwick Airport. It was always my dream to be a customs and excise officer. I know that sounds really weird, doesn’t it?

Speaker 2
07:41 – 07:54
And I’d geared all my education up to become a customs officer. I had a work placement and everything, and then it all fell through because they made a load of people redundant and everything. I was like, well, okay. So the next best thing for me was security at the airport.

Speaker 3
07:54 – 07:55
I could actually see you doing that, really.

Speaker 2
07:56 – 08:21
Yeah, that’s what I went into. And I had such a brilliant career as I was an ops manager working for the US carriers like Continental, Northwest, Delta, American Airlines, all that sort of thing. And I absolutely loved it. But because my shifts were so ridiculously early, I’d had to be at work for like five o’clock in the morning.

Speaker 2
08:21 – 08:35
So finding the commute from Eastbourne to Gatwick was just ridiculous. I was on a train at half past three in the morning. So I was like, you know what, I’m just going to have to move to Crawley. And here I am.

Speaker 3
08:36 – 08:39
So tell me a little bit about your connection to autism.

Speaker 2
08:41 – 08:58
Well, up until I had Ryan, I didn’t really know much about autism. Like us all. Like us all, you know, I’d heard about it, didn’t know much about it. I’d watched Rain Man, even though, you know, all that sort of thing.

Speaker 2
08:58 – 09:32
And then I was presented with my beautiful baby boy. And very, very early on, probably when he wasn’t even six months old, I could see that he wasn’t developing like the other babies that I would go to like Rhyme Time to. And you know, all those parent and baby groups that you almost feel pressured into going to. and he was not doing what the other babies were doing, he was not interested in any way whatsoever.

Speaker 2
09:32 – 10:13
We were seeing obsessions start very early on with anything yellow, you know, all he wanted was to cuddle a yellow, a plastic yellow spade in bed, you know, and carry around this little yellow ball, and he wouldn’t, you know, he didn’t want to join in with the songs, he just, you know, there was no interaction there whatsoever, he would just want to be as far away from these other kids as possible, So I was obviously like, okay, something different about this child. You know, a neighbor of ours across the way, you know, she had a little girl two months older than Ryan. And you can’t help but compare.

Speaker 2
10:13 – 10:31
Why is my child doing that? And I was trying to force Ryan to do things, you know, when it comes to our neighbour’s little girl’s two-year check, I was like, what did they make her do? What did they make her do? And they were like, oh yeah, we had to, you know, draw a little picture and, you know, name the body parts, comb the dolly’s hair, build a little tower, and I was just like…

Speaker 2
10:31 – 10:47
He can’t do any of these. He cannot do one of these things whatsoever. So we went to the two-year check, and all he wanted to do was go around the perimeters of the room, opening, closing cupboard doors. No, that was it.

Speaker 2
10:47 – 11:21
It could not get him to do anything. And it was just so distressing. And you know, I’ve still, I found it the other day because I had to fill out some forms for Ryan’s transition to college, and they wanted to know, like, when he had his vaccinations and bits and pieces, and I found this developmental check, this two-year check piece of paper, and when you see in black and white that your child is developing at two years old, he was developing at that of a six-month-old, I was like, wow, okay, I’ve got, I’ve got a bit of a difficulty going on here, so we, we were lucky enough to

Speaker 2
11:22 – 11:46
get an appointment with a paediatrician within two months, which is unheard of these days, you know, totally unheard of. And I count myself so lucky that we were able to be seen so quickly. And, you know, I, me being me, I started doing a lot of research and I was just like, I think this child has autism. And I, so I, you know, I did some Googling and, you know, I was looking at the characteristics and I’m like, oh my goodness.

Speaker 2
11:46 – 11:49
Yeah. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Yeah. He’s ticking the boxes.

Speaker 2
11:49 – 12:00
Okay. I know what I’m dealing with now. So we got to see the paediatrician, we were in there 45 minutes and we walked out with a diagnosis there and then. That was another long one.

Speaker 2
12:00 – 12:28
Yes, you know, and you know, there is a grieving process that parents go through, you know, because you aspire your child to be like a nuclear physicist or something, a doctor, you know, and then when you’re presented with a child that now we know and I knew then that he’s going to need some form of care for the rest of his life. Your world falls apart.

Speaker 3
12:28 – 12:35
Even though you know and it’s just when they say it or when you read it.

Speaker 2
12:36 – 12:44
I was glad to get that diagnosis. I was really, really happy and I actually bounced out of there going yes, yes, yes. I knew I was right. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it.

Speaker 2
12:44 – 13:07
Some people do fall apart then but I fell apart after the two-year check. That’s when I went home, I closed the curtains, I shut the whole world out for a couple of days, and I got that out of my system. And then I was like, right, come on, I’m going to deal with this. And to get that diagnosis, it gave me, you know, because you’re looked at as a bad parent, aren’t you, you know?

Speaker 2
13:07 – 13:26
You feel so much pressure for your child to perform and when they can’t they look at you first, you know? So did you tell your mum and how did your mum deal with it? Do you know what? It’s, We realised with Ryan that my dad would have got a diagnosis.

Speaker 2
13:26 – 13:40
My dad was on the spectrum because he had lots of little quirky behaviours that we saw then manifesting in Ryan. And we’d say, your dad used to do that. I was like, I know he did. So it totally, totally made sense.

Speaker 2
13:40 – 14:06
And, you know, mum was so accepting, so, so accepting. I will call them the ex-outlaws because Ryan’s dad, I divorced him many, many years ago, and they were the ones that really struggled. But then when I look at Ryan’s dad, he ticks all the boxes too. Poor Ryan, he’s got it from my dad, Ryan’s dad.

Speaker 2
14:06 – 14:26
And then, you know, you throw it all into the mix and, you know, out comes Ryan. So, but on the back of that, we now realise that my mum would get a diagnosis as well, without any shadow of a doubt. You know, so poor Ryan, he didn’t stand a chance, to be honest, did he? So, but I was so pleased to be able to say to the outlaws at the time, look, I was right.

Speaker 2
14:27 – 14:32
It wasn’t a case of no, no, no, no, no, but it was a case of, look, you know, listen to me. I know what I’m dealing with now.

Speaker 3
14:32 – 14:46
Yeah, as you know I’m interested in diagnosis, so what is the, obviously now with, actually now with Covid, what’s it like for parents waiting to get a diagnosis? Is it still, is the waiting list longer than ever?

Speaker 2
14:46 – 15:26
It is, yeah, the waiting lists are just ridiculous and even more so for the adult diagnosis as well. You know, you’re talking two years just to even get an appointment for an adult to go through the process. For those going through the Child Development Centres with the paediatricians and CAMHS etc, everything is being done virtually over the phone, either like Skype or Zoom or a telephone consultation. A friend of ours that we got to know recently that lives close to where we are, her little one is on that first rung of the ladder and she is just waiting for that telephone consultation now.

Speaker 2
15:27 – 15:34
So, yeah, it’s hard because the paediatrician really needs to see the child. Big time, yeah.

Speaker 3
15:34 – 15:40
So, yeah. What are the barriers, have you come up then against post-diagnosis, would you say, personally?

Speaker 2
15:42 – 15:58
Well, when we left the paediatrician’s office with the diagnosis, That was pretty much it. They were like, right, okay, you’ve got it in writing now. Here’s a referral to Portage and a leaflet. What is autism?

Speaker 2
15:58 – 16:02
Okay, thanks. That’s it. All right, okay. What do I do now then?

Speaker 2
16:02 – 16:10
Oh, well, see you again in six months. Oh, great. Okay. So we were pretty much left to it, you know?

Speaker 3
16:10 – 16:16
My portage was brilliant. That was the only thing that I could say out of Hillingdon that they did well. Everything else I got nothing.

Speaker 2
16:16 – 16:39
No, portage were lifesavers for us because they were able to open the doors to the services that we needed. If we didn’t have them, you know, and again I was so lucky because we got portage straight away, whereas the waiting list now is just beyond ridiculous and some kids don’t get portage now, you know, in our neck of the woods.

Speaker 3
16:40 – 16:56
So for people listening in and they don’t know what portage is, so it’s for children under five, I still think it’s under five, and they can come into your home, give you advice, give you tips and signpost you as well. So my portage work with Angela, her name’s Jo, we became really good friends and I still see her now and again.

Speaker 2
16:57 – 17:24
Yeah, Sharon was just incredible, you know, we got tech set up, you know, we had the educational psychologist come in, you know, we referred speech and language, you know, specialist health visitors, you know, so, yeah, so if it wasn’t for them, you know, they are unsung heroes, definitely. So, that was one of the barriers. Okay. Obviously, there’s the whole DLA thing as well, the benefit side of things.

Speaker 2
17:25 – 17:37
Yeah. And, you know, we got turned down and I was like, no, this isn’t right. So I appealed and they turned me down again. So I end up going to tribunal and I took Ryan with me.

Speaker 2
17:38 – 17:52
And he kicked off merry hell. He broke their laptop. They completely trashed the room and they were like, actually, yeah, we can see we’ve made the wrong decision here. So, but that was a fight I didn’t need to have, you know, I shouldn’t have had to have.

Speaker 2
17:53 – 17:55
And some people haven’t got the strength to fight.

Speaker 3
17:56 – 18:06
I know a parent that had twins, she couldn’t cope anymore and basically in the end she packs two suitcases with the twins, took them to social services, just left them there.

Speaker 2
18:06 – 18:42
And that’s what you have to do, you know, it’s just the system with the benefits sort of thing is geared up to be, and pretty much everything to be honest, like tax credits and carers allowance, everything is geared up to be as so complicated and as stressful as possible, you know, that that people just don’t bother, they give up, you know, and I can’t do that, I can’t and I won’t, you know. Ryan’s DLA is due for renewal in November and you, you know, you’re always dreading that brown envelope coming through the door, aren’t you, you know, and we had a brown envelope come through the door the other day and it was from the DWP about Ryan’s DLA and luckily they’ve extended it for six months.

Speaker 2
18:43 – 18:58
Hooray! But do you know what, the anxiety left my body as soon as I read that because just those forms, you know, and then don’t even get me started on the EHCP process. You know, back in the day, Ryan had a statement. Yeah.

Speaker 2
18:58 – 19:09
And I was told to, you know, let the system, you know, the system will work for Ryan, just go with it. And I was like, no, I’m not waiting. I’m not waiting. My child cannot go to mainstream.

Speaker 2
19:09 – 19:18
I’m going to get into special school, whatever it takes. So I did it all by myself. I ignored the local authority and, you know, other service providers. I said, no, I’m doing it.

Speaker 2
19:18 – 19:25
I’m doing it. OK. no, no, you can’t do it. I was like, I can, you watch me.

Speaker 2
19:25 – 19:35
And I did. And I got him into the special school. But it was part of, there were two places left for Ryan in reception. And there were six kids going for those two places.

Speaker 2
19:36 – 19:52
And I made, and this is what I tell my families that we support as a charity, you have to be a polite nuisance. You have to keep going on at them and say, oh, it’s Ryan’s mum, it’s Ryan’s mum, it’s Ryan’s mum. Don’t let them ever forget you. And because I was on at them every single day, I got Ryan that place at school.

Speaker 2
19:52 – 20:03
But for a split second I felt guilty that there was another child that had missed out and I thought no, I have fought so hard for this. So there’s always a fight, there’s always a fight going on. Big time.

Speaker 3
20:03 – 20:19
So tell me a little bit about Autism Support Crawley. When did it first start? Because obviously you’re living in Crawley and you support a lot of families and that obviously I know, it’s grown throughout the years. So tell me a little bit about Autism Support Crawley.

Speaker 3
20:19 – 20:21
For people that are listening in that might not know anything

Speaker 2
20:22 – 21:01
So Autism Support Crawley is now a registered charity. It actually was founded in 2007 prior to me even knowing anything about autism and when obviously we had the diagnosis for Ryan I was scouring the internet for some form of local support and I stumbled upon Autism Support Crawley that had a little bit of a Facebook page and I saw on there that they were running evening meetings etc so I was like well okay I’m going to go along to this because I want some peer support you know. And that’s kind of how it happened.

Speaker 2
21:02 – 21:17
I found these lovely other mums and dads that were meeting. And through Portage, I was then put on the early bird course, which was phenomenal. It was just so brilliant. And I got to know other mums with young kids with autism.

Speaker 2
21:17 – 21:37
And the network was growing and growing and growing. And I could actually see there is such a huge amount of families out there that we don’t know about that all need this peer support. So me being me, I was like, you know, we need to get this support group up and running properly. You know, we need to be reaching out to more people.

Speaker 2
21:38 – 22:36
So I applied for the people that I first met at the first meeting became our board of trustees, our committee, so to speak. and I applied for some funding with the local authority to get us all set up with the constitution and everything, and get the meetings running regularly, you know, ramp up the Facebook social media side of things, and it just, when, you know, we had our first AGM and I was, you know, I was like, yes, I’m chairperson, this is amazing, not really realising what I was getting into, and at that time we had about 40, 50 families registered, and we’re now, we’ve now got over, 1,500 families, which is incredible, absolutely. It’s frightening, it’s a frightening number, but it’s also incredible at the same time that we’re able to reach out to so many families that would never have known but they weren’t on their own and this is it families think they’re the only ones with a child with autism

Speaker 2
22:36 – 22:39
and no there’s loads of us out there.

Speaker 3
22:39 – 22:48
Yeah so what percentage would you say for children and adults because obviously adults sometimes they’re a little bit it takes longer for them to ask for help as in families.

Speaker 2
22:48 – 23:11
It does yeah we’ve got the majority of our families are those with the under 18s should we say. But we have got families that, you know, our oldest member, oh bless him, Ian, he’s nearly 90, bless him, and he still comes to our evening meetings, when we were able to have them obviously, and he’s caring for his son who’s in his 50s.

Speaker 1
23:11 – 23:11
Yeah.

Speaker 2
23:12 – 23:58
And he’s, you know, the journey that he has been on, you know, lovely Janet, one of our other trustees, she’s in her 60s, bless her and her son’s Bertie, you know, so we have got, we have got lots of families with the older people that they care for. We’ve got people with us whose spouse has got a diagnosis, We’ve got, some of our parent carers have got, you know, one of our trustees, Charlotte, you know, she’s got three kids on the spectrum and a husband with a diagnosis. I mean, you know, so yeah, she’s got a really, really tricky life. But we’ve also found that some of our parent carers have realised that they too themselves are on the spectrum because of their children.

Speaker 2
23:59 – 24:05
And they have then got that realisation that it’s like, now I know why I felt so different all of my life.

Speaker 3
24:05 – 24:26
So with Covid, what kind of messages are you getting through from the charity? Obviously we’re getting messages through that adults are struggling or they just want someone to talk to or can they point me in the right direction but it’s slightly different now obviously because of Covid. So what sort of things are they coming to you with?

Speaker 2
24:26 – 25:04
Well obviously we can’t run our face-to-face meetings like we would have done, can’t run our evening meetings, can’t run our coffee mornings, you know, all of our events have been cancelled, so everything, you know, we are reaching out to our families virtually, you know, and our closed Facebook page is the lifeline it always was and, you know, and even more so now than ever. Our admin team are working so hard to get all the questions and the need for signposting onto our page as quick as possible so we can all help support each other. And I always do a live video feed once a week, just to reach out to the families to have a chat to as well.

Speaker 2
25:05 – 25:06
But it’s been really, really popular.

Speaker 3
25:07 – 25:11
Yeah, you’ve been doing your virtual autism pub, what is it called?

Speaker 2
25:11 – 25:46
Virtual pub, yes. But it is, you know, we have created our own virtual pub because, again, part of our routine on a Sunday with Ryan, you know, would be to do a physical activity and then we’d meet up with friends in the pub for a pint on the way home. And we need to keep that going because we’re missing people And it’s so important to keep in touch. And we found the video calling, doing live feeds, it’s really, really helping people not feel alone because it’s the isolation that is the killer.

Speaker 2
25:47 – 25:49
And it’s so important.

Speaker 3
25:52 – 26:02
Obviously, the government are now saying in a couple of weeks’ time that children are going back to school. What do you think?

Speaker 2
26:02 – 26:24
Do you think Ryan’s going back to school on June the 1st? No, no way, no way whatsoever. I could not believe that, yes, technically he should be going back because he’s year six and he’s got an EHCP and this is where they’re not getting it from the top downwards. You know, when they said schools are closing but those that have got an EHCP can still go to school, well that’s all of Ryan’s school anyway.

Speaker 2
26:25 – 26:39
Every child in a specialist school has an EHCP. And now they’re saying, oh yeah, the reception, year one, year sixes, those have an EHCP all going back to school. No. Ryan cannot social distance.

Speaker 2
26:39 – 26:47
He doesn’t understand. He hasn’t got the comprehension of what is going on out there, you know, and what should be doing. And schools cannot guarantee the safety of these kids

Speaker 3
26:47 – 26:58
They need to make the communication clear as if they’re talking to someone with autism.

Speaker 2
26:58 – 27:19
They’re saying June the 1st, which is obviously subject to, you know, it could change, couldn’t it? But at what point are they going to say, oh no, we’re going to make it the next week now? When are they going to come out with a decision to say, yes, it’s definitely June the 1st, or no, it’s going to be June the 8th? The amount of work, I mean, this is me with my governor hat on as well.

Speaker 2
27:20 – 27:44
The amount of work that the senior leadership team in Ryan’s school and every single school and the mainstream as well, I was chatting to an acting head of the mainstream the other day as well, the incredible amount of work they’ve got to do for the risk assessment side of things, you know, and are they going to be insured? Are the insurers going to allow these kids back at school? It’s just, I do not want my child to be a crash test dummy for the R-rate.

Speaker 2
27:44 – 27:56
He’s too precious. He’s the only child I’ve got. He’s not cannon fodder, Anna. He’s my only child that I’ll ever, ever have and he is too precious.

Speaker 2
27:56 – 28:06
So I’ve already made my feelings clear with Skoll. I don’t envy them. They’ve just been thrown into something that nobody’s really thought about properly.

Speaker 3
28:06 – 28:17
Okay, talk to me, because we’ve got lots to get through, so talk to me about being ambassador for Gatwick Airport and what’s happening with Gatwick Airport at the moment.

Speaker 2
28:17 – 28:45
There’s nobody there Anna, it’s a ghost town, there’s absolutely nobody there at all. Okay. So it’s something that I’ve just been so proud of, the huge amount of work that we’ve done there. Yeah, so now I’ve got to start all over again, as and when things get back to normal, you know, but it’s just, I became ambassador and Ryan is Gatwick’s junior ambassador for autism, purely because of know we had a really really bad experience going through the airport trying

Speaker 2
28:45 – 29:16
to go on our family holiday and I got to one of our charity committee members is actually a police officer up at Gatwick and he was just like right come on I know the right people we can we can try and fix this and so this is going back going back about seven or eight years now. And so I sat down with some really lovely people, and one of them was also a parent carer who then joined our charity as well. And I was like, we’ve got to fix this.

Speaker 2
29:16 – 29:30
There has to be an easier way to navigate through Gatwick, through any airport, because of that whole hidden disability side of things. It’s not obvious. And people, again, look at you as a bad parent. They look at the child as a bad kid.

Speaker 2
29:30 – 29:55
I said, it’s got to stop. And so we then brought in this lovely escort system. to help families get through the checking, get through security, through the departure lounge and onto the plane. Yeah, it was officially then launched in May 2016 with the Sunflower Lanyard.

Speaker 2
29:55 – 30:45
Four years ago? Yes, yeah, 2016 it was launched and it has literally, pardon the pun, taken off and worldwide, you know, we have worked so hard to educate the security teams, you know, like the police, the border force, the firemen, the checking staff, the airlines, um you know all the shop assistants and everything to to recognize that anyone that’s either got the lanyard on or the wristband the pin badge or a little ribbon lapel badge you know they are what it looks like just in case people listening in think they might like to get one Yeah so the hidden disability lanyard is a green lanyard or a green wristband or a green pin bad with a yellow sunflower on and the lanyard and the wristbands have got lots of yellow sunflowers on and it is just such rather than having this great big arrow pointing at your head

Speaker 2
30:45 – 31:26
which we all know what I’m talking about there. It’s a very, very subtle marker for everyone at the airports and now in banks and hospitals and post offices and supermarkets to identify that that individual or the family or someone within that party has got a hidden difficulty that they need to have some extra time for processing, for trying to understand what’s going on, extra time to get through the system without needing to say what their diagnosis is, because that’s irrelevant, but for someone, and the majority of people that are using the system have autism, but we’re also talking ADHD, Tourette’s, people with a stoma bag, people with dementia, and it has revolutionized travel.

Speaker 2
31:27 – 31:53
be perfectly honest, and it is encouraging more people to travel, but obviously at the moment we can’t go anywhere. So obviously I was liaising very closely with my colleagues at Gatwick recently, and a couple of them have been furloughed, but the rest of them have all gone. and we are talking like top terminal management here, you know, we’re talking the accessibility manager has gone, you know.

Speaker 3
31:53 – 32:04
Do you think Gatwick’s going to still be running? Because I’ve seen the news and they’re talking about, you know, planes and particular people pulling away from Gatwick.

Speaker 2
32:06 – 32:31
I hope to goodness that Gatwick survives this. I’m hearing that it is going to be okay at some point, but it’s going to take years to recover. You know, when I hear that British Airways are potentially pulling out of Gatwick as well, possibly, it’s just, you know, we missed one holiday over Easter to Jersey and we always fly British Airways because we have to fly British Airways because that’s the only airline that Ryan will let us fly on.

Speaker 2
32:31 – 32:48
So I don’t know if we’re going to get away in the summer. And if British Airways pull out of Gatwick, they’ve given us vouchers for our Easter holiday, but potentially I can’t use, you know, because I can’t go to Heathrow. We’re just going to have to wait and see, aren’t we?

Speaker 3
32:48 – 32:55
Everything’s going to take some time, I think, before we get back to our normal, if we ever get back to our normal.

Speaker 2
32:55 – 32:59
Yeah, I don’t think our normal will ever be that normal again.

Speaker 3
32:59 – 33:35
I can’t get used to seeing people wearing masks. Normally, when I go into shops, what have you, I hate going into big supermarkets, so I go into like the smaller ones that are attached to garages, but I had to go in to get some bits and bobs from boots and I thought, well, I’ll walk into the town because I don’t live that far away. And it was weird, like really weird, like seeing people queue up social distancing, wearing their masks and like no shops open, people just look so deflated and it was just like I’m not going to do this, I’m not going to walk into the town again until it’s a

Speaker 3
33:35 – 34:20
little bit more normal but anyway we just have to make use of the way it is and just take it a day at a time and just keep thinking out the box at charities that we are, see what we can do and just to let everybody know that if you want to check out as well what we’re doing on our charity website it’s www.annakennedyonline.com. I’m always posting on social media at Anna Kennedy One on Twitter, Anna Kennedy Online on Facebook and at Anna Kennedy OBE on Instagram. We have workshops that are happening which are free every couple of weeks so Paul Isaacs, one of our lovely consultants who’s autistic, he’s been doing quite a few workshops And Jo, who is also one of our ambassadors and champions, she’s also been doing some workshops and we’ve got

Speaker 3
34:21 – 35:11
lots of other things that we’re thinking about in the background. I just also wanted to share with people, speaking to occupational therapy, I keep giving you tips and things that what you can try out with your children so one of the tips that the occupational therapist said to me about obviously keep doing your daily walk get some fresh air and exercise balance games try balancing slowly along chalk lines and shapes drawn on the floor outside placing one foot with the heel nearly touching to the toe to the foot this can also be done with a tape or a rope jumping using the same equipment so jumping over one line of the rope and jumping onto the other jumping backwards forwards and also don’t forget about joe wicks who’s the body coach kids love him and actually um doing a lot of exercise and the last thing she’s saying is threading activities this is a great bilateral

Speaker 3
35:11 – 36:13
activity and lots of household items can be used so if you have some string you can try threading or pin pasta to make necklaces and the pasta can also be painted if you’ve got spaghetti standard it ups right in some play-doh and try to thread the beans or Cheerios onto each piece turn the colander upside down and try and thread them through the spaghetti hole so there’s lots of different things that you can do even though I know a lot of families have lost their jobs so they’re you know money’s tight so try to think of different ways that you can do things at home with your children and one last thing that I found was the bird feeding game which quite a few kids that I know on the spectrum have been doing on the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds so if you check that out they’ve got a lot of games on there and it’s fun and learning for children so something else that every week I’ll keep looking to see what I can find to share with everyone so Maria can I just ask if you chatting to a parent

Speaker 3
36:13 – 36:26
and they were going to get a diagnosis for their son or daughter. Now because you know what you know and if you could rewind back what would you have done differently and what would you say to a parent?

Speaker 2
36:26 – 36:52
What would I have done differently? I would have perhaps taken more video footage of the difficulties of you know how Ryan was presenting as evidence because And I always say that to parents now, is just keep logging everything. Get a big book and diarise it every single day. Every time there is a behaviour, every time, you know, you’re like, what on earth is this?

Speaker 2
36:53 – 36:59
You know, is it a sensory seeking? Just write it down. Just absolutely log everything. Take as much video footage as possible.

Speaker 2
37:01 – 37:20
Just because, you know, there are still, you know, and we hear it all the time where, you know, parents are being told, no, your child isn’t autistic because they make great eye contact. Oh please, you know. Oh no, she can’t have autism because she’s a girl. Oh no, you know.

Speaker 2
37:20 – 37:50
So yeah, and never ever. give up, you know, and as hard as it is, you know, when those dark days come and we still get them, it’s okay to go, do you know what, I’m not doing it today. It’s okay to shut that world out and recharge and to not feel a failure because you’re not, you know. You know, we are, we are, you know, we’ve got superpowers to be able to do what we’re doing for our kids, you know.

Speaker 2
37:50 – 37:52
We can’t send them back.

Speaker 3
37:53 – 38:39
I think it’s the way we deal with it, you and I, and lots of other families that are bigger heads, if you like, from their charities. I think the way we deal with it is we act on it. Some parents, they’re just step back and feel totally deflated but that certain people that there’s something inside of you that it’s just like this is what I’m going to do I’m not going to give up I’m going to try and pave the way for my daughter so that when I’m dead and gone that they’ve got the right provision so there are parents that are like that and there’s no criticisms of the other parents just it’s too overwhelming and some days are very challenging like the last three days have been very challenging for me I’m small

Speaker 3
38:39 – 38:49
like you and trying to support him and then Patrick’s off as well, he’s on furlough and then he was being scammed as well so that was happening on the weekend.

Speaker 2
38:49 – 39:20
I was thinking, hey, just keep throwing more stuff at me, I can deal with it. It’s, you know, it’s, I can never give up, and I never will, you know, because there is still so much to do out there, Anna, as you well know, but, you know, if you’re having a bad day, it’s okay for me to go, you know what, I am not doing it today, you know, I had a really bad Oh, when we were still running coffee mornings, you know, I got up in the morning and I wasn’t feeling it. Ryan wasn’t feeling it.

Speaker 2
39:20 – 39:30
And I did not get him to school till gone 10 o’clock. You know, it was just one of those ones where it just all fell apart. And I was supposed to run in a coffee morning. And I just phoned up one of the other trustees and said, do you know what?

Speaker 2
39:30 – 39:36
I can’t do it today. I cannot be there as a chairperson. I need to go home. And it’s OK to say that.

Speaker 3
39:36 – 39:36
It’s OK to say that.

Speaker 2
39:37 – 40:03
And, you know, I went back home and I didn’t run that coffee morning, but towards the end of it, I went back out and I accessed the coffee morning as Ryan’s mum, not as the chairperson, you know, because I then was like, actually, you know what, I need a cup of tea and some peer support. But other days I will just go home and I will shut those curtains and I won’t answer the phone and I will not look at those emails because I need to recharge. And then the next day I’m back fighting again.

Speaker 2
40:03 – 40:10
And I think it’s so important to acknowledge that and go, it’s all right to just have that time off, you know.

Speaker 3
40:10 – 40:14
We can’t do this interview without talking about Lee, who’s your rock.

Speaker 2
40:16 – 40:20
Let me go and find him. Let’s go and see how he’s getting on with the dusting, shall we?

Speaker 3
40:21 – 40:24
He’s probably sitting up in a pint in the garden.

Speaker 2
40:25 – 40:34
He’s probably opened a pub, Anna, if I’m knowing him. He’s thinking about it. Right, yes, he’s here, my rock, my wonderful mate. I don’t know where he is.

Speaker 2
40:34 – 40:40
Hello, Louie, how are you? Hold on, let me just put that in your ear, I’ll have a chat with Anna as well.

Speaker 3
40:40 – 41:05
Hello. Hello Lee, how are you? Have you got your dusting outfit on? I’ve just chatted to Maureen, I was talking to her about that obviously you’re her rock and just talk to me a little bit about your experience obviously being a stepdad to Ryan and you know being pushed into the Autumn Support Crawley support group.

Speaker 3
41:06 – 41:09
Talk to me a little bit about your experience as a dad.

Speaker 1
41:09 – 41:22
I’ve got to say I’m quite lucky, really, because not only did I marry a beautiful, lovely lady, but I’ve got a lovely stepson as well. So, yeah, I’ve got to say that because she’s going to kick me out. I haven’t paid him for that. Yeah, blessed.

Speaker 1
41:22 – 41:31
I’ve watched him grow up from just a tiny little lad. Seen his struggles. He still struggles, but we’re all there for him. We’ve got his back.

Speaker 1
41:31 – 41:44
He’s got our back. He loves us. Yeah, we both love each other to pieces and we all love each other, so it’s really nice. I’ve got two kids from a previous marriage, so I had a little bit of practice, but not with an autistic lad.

Speaker 1
41:44 – 41:46
So it’s all every day’s new territory.

Speaker 3
41:47 – 41:52
So what have you learned? If I had someone said to you, what have you learned?

Speaker 1
41:52 – 42:16
Patience, I think. Yeah, just tolerating. And it opened my eyes because, you know, I wouldn’t have understood anybody else’s conditions if I hadn’t have met Maria and Ryan. So I’d have just gone about my normal daily business and know maybe I would have been that person that stared and looked at people in supermarkets and stuff I don’t know I would like to think I’d have learned a little bit better than that but yeah I’ve learned

Speaker 1
42:16 – 42:20
a lot so yeah still every day is a learning day every day is a school day.

Speaker 3
42:20 – 42:24
So how are you coping with being at home and Covid and all that business?

Speaker 1
42:25 – 43:08
Well I was working up in London right up until the last knockings and it was horrible it was a ghost town I saw you posted some pictures as well of Covent Garden and I weren’t too far away from you really I worked up until that Monday and then we locked down because Maria’s got high asthma so we locked down and to be honest I’ve always struggled with anxieties but certain anxieties have lifted because I haven’t got to get the alarm going in the mornings at quarter to five in the morning, I haven’t got to get on the train, I haven’t got to go up to London and fighting in the tubes and stuff. And then I’m not doing my daily work.

Speaker 1
43:08 – 43:15
So, you know, there is a little bit of, you know, I need purpose. I need to be doing something. I need to be active. I need to keep my brain active.

Speaker 1
43:15 – 43:27
So that’s something I feel I’m losing a little bit, you know, I’m the man of the house. I’ve got to be, you know, bringing them up, bringing the money in and stuff. But, you know, but we know it’s covered. We know we’re not, we’re not going to struggle for a little while.

Speaker 1
43:27 – 43:37
So. When do you think you might be going back to work? Have they given you any inkling? Well, I could have gone back now, but because the construction industry never stopped.

Speaker 1
43:37 – 43:55
So it was just, it was really a decision that me and my partner made that we didn’t want to be up there. And like what Maria’s used as crash test dummies, you know, we don’t want to be the testers that just make sure that I’ll get them out there. Let’s see what happens. You know, we don’t want to be them, those people.

Speaker 1
43:55 – 44:13
So we decided that we’d watch to see what the scientists are saying, what the government objectives are. and we’ll see what happens if the diagnosis cases and that lot go down and they start looking like they’re going down then we’ll consider it and properly going down.

Speaker 3
44:14 – 44:48
When the government are talking to everybody obviously the fifth

Speaker 1
44:48 – 45:10
But what I think is confusing is they’ll try doing graphs one day and then they’ll change them a couple of days later. So, just as you’ve got the hang of one graph, they change the graphs again on those Cobra meetings. So, yeah, it’s just, it is a bit confusing. But I know obviously they’re going to come up with new ideas of how to move forward.

Speaker 1
45:11 – 45:16
Yeah, it’s just, yeah, it does get a bit confusing. Yeah, it needs to be straightforward.

Speaker 3
45:17 – 45:22
So what do you think that the future holds for Ryan as he grows older, both of you?

Speaker 2
45:25 – 45:45
Well, we’re just about to start puberty. Oh, look at you! I’ve been through it twice! Well, we can come to you for advice on that one.

Speaker 2
45:45 – 46:25
We think about this a lot and as much as you shouldn’t do, you can’t help it because yes, Ryan’s nearly 12. So, you know, the hair on his legs is starting to get a little bit dark now and, you know, that whole side of things, the shaving side of things, because of his sensory processing difficulties, that fills me with dread. The fact that he’s still in nappies, you know, and it’s that whole body change thing, you know. You know, because he’s got such, you know, significant learning difficulties, although he’s nearly 12, you know, mentally, emotionally, he’s not, you know, so we have no idea how he’s going to be feeling when things start changing.

Speaker 2
46:25 – 46:28
Yeah. And then it’s that… He’s a bit triangular, like me.

Speaker 3
46:28 – 46:37
Exactly, you know, the thought of having to… I know I shouldn’t, but I feel like my stomach, like, rolls over every time I do it. But he looks…

Speaker 2
46:37 – 46:50
He’s my little boy, you know. He’s 12. And then you’ve got that feeling of, oh my goodness, you know, we’ve got to transition into adult services and drop off into the abyss and you get left.

Speaker 3
46:51 – 47:00
Are there in Crawley, so when he gets to 18, 19, obviously things might change by then, but is there much going on for adults?

Speaker 2
47:00 – 47:10
No, not a lot. So that’s my next fight, Anna. I’ve got to change that to make it right for my boy and everyone else coming up after him. There’s nothing out there.

Speaker 2
47:10 – 47:29
Yes, there are services, but it’s not enough. And again, they just drop off into the abyss and you’re left to it. And the fact that also there’s the whole child trust fund thing coming up that I’m really quite anxious about. I’ve got to become Ryan’s deputy, which costs a ridiculous amount of money.

Speaker 2
47:29 – 47:52
to get back that 250 quid in his trust fund that we can’t access unless I’ve got a deputy order that’s going to cost anything up to £1,000. So there’s that to consider. And there are change.org petitions out there with people that we are liaising with as a charity to say, look, this is a big problem out there. And then there’s that awful thing.

Speaker 2
47:52 – 48:24
It’s like, OK, so what’s going to happen when Cookie and I are not here anymore? What’s going to happen to my child? you know he really struggles with separation anxiety he hasn’t got the comprehension that mummy’s not here anymore or cookie’s not here anymore and that really really upsets me to not know what’s going to happen to him you know we we’ve set our own um fund trust up for him with a specialist will um to make sure that he You know, and this is where the system’s wrong as well.

Speaker 2
48:24 – 48:45
Obviously, if we were to go, we’ve got these two kids, Liam and Sophie, who are adults now, and we’ve got Ryan. So technically, all of our estate would be split three ways. And Liam and Sophie can do whatever they like with whatever they inherit. For Ryan, it gets offset by the local authority to fund his care.

Speaker 2
48:45 – 48:47
And that’s wrong, absolutely wrong.

Speaker 3
48:47 – 48:51
And that’s why we have to have a trust, because I was worried that something would happen to me.

Speaker 2
48:51 – 49:07
And that’s what we’ve had to do. We’ve got a trust. So Liam and Sophie would get their fair share of any monies left over, but the house is Ryan’s, and the house cannot be sold to fund his care. We’ve got the trustees, it’s all set up.

Speaker 2
49:07 – 49:13
So at least we know he’s going to be okay. you know, but it’s still there. Who’s going to look after him?

Speaker 3
49:14 – 49:32
People listening in, if they want to write a will and obviously they’ve got a son or a daughter that’s on the spectrum, Mencap have got a very good website where there’s lots of advice on there about setting up a trust and they’ve got a helpline where you can ring and chat to somebody. I don’t know if you used Mencap Marie or is there someone else?

Speaker 2
49:32 – 50:00
That’s it, that’s exactly what I was going to say. It’s a amazing Renaissance legal that Mencap refer us all on to and they’re based in Brighton and also in Crawley but they obviously cover countrywide and you know they have been so amazing in making sure everything is set up correctly because there are other solicitors out there who say they can do it but actually it’s not right. How long did the process take for you?

Speaker 2
50:00 – 50:27
It was very, very quick, actually. We did it about three or four years ago, didn’t we? And, you know, I’ve literally just referred a family onto them now, because normally they would do a home visit, but obviously they’re not, they’re going to do a Skype call instead. And, you know, it was a couple of home visits just to talk through our circumstances and to give us some things to think about, about, you know, who we were, want as trustees, you know, what do we, you know, I’m writing a letter of wishes for when we

Speaker 2
50:27 – 50:49
die. It is harrowing, you know, it was one of the most upsetting things we’ve ever had to do. But it’s something we’ve got to think about, you know, because it’s going to happen at some point, you know, so it was a bit, you know, within a couple of weeks, we’ve got it sorted, you know. And it is just having that peace of mind to know that actually, it will be okay.

Speaker 2
50:49 – 51:01
and that he will be looked after and he’s not going to be sent into a care home you know when you hear all those horror stories you know he’s got his house which is the most important thing.

Speaker 3
51:01 – 51:22
Okay so we haven’t got much more to go but because this is a program about mental health and well-being what do you do to relax because obviously we can’t have our chairperson hat on all the time. You have to have downtime, me time. So obviously it’s a little bit different now. What did you used to do and what do you do now to give you downtime?

Speaker 2
51:22 – 52:00
Downtime was always going to the gym, you know, we’re very, very active. Yeah, tag team gym or, you know, if Ryan was with his dad, we would be able to go to the gym together or swim or play racquetball, play squash, you know, go for long walks, which we can still do. Downtime would, again, you know, we would like to do some form of exercise and then meet up with a friend in the pub. you know and we all and we can’t do that um music music is um our biggest way of relaxing we know we have the radio on all day long from the time we wake up to the time we go to sleep and it is so beneficial for all

Speaker 2
52:00 – 52:55
of us and ryan learns so much through through music as well is ryan like Well, we listen to Absolute Radio, which is mainly rock indie based. We love Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon, The Killers, Oasis, but also The Rolling Stones, The Who. T-Rex, and Ryan loves all of that, you know, and he’s got, despite such a learning deficit, when, you know, he can identify a song just by the opening bar, and he can sing it beautifully, you know, so it’s, you know, for a kid with such a deficit, he’s also really, really clever where that’s concerned, when you find the right things, you know, and he loves music, and he’s, you know, it makes him happy, and it makes us very happy as well, so we use things like that to keep our anxieties to the bare minimum.

Speaker 2
52:55 – 53:23
So now obviously, you know, we can’t go to the gym, we can’t go swimming, we can’t go and play racquetball because that’s an indoor sport as opposed to tennis which you’re allowed to do. So, you know, we are going for our long walk every day with a physical activity in it but, you know, so we’ve got the music on all day. We made a list, we made two lists. We made a to-do list which are all the jobs that we’ve been putting off forever.

Speaker 2
53:24 – 53:50
Well, we’ve all got one of those lists, haven’t we? So we’ve been trying to crack through some of those, but we also made a nice list of things that we wanted to do while we had that time. And it was silly things like painting the toenails that I don’t do, you know? It was things like that that just really raised our spirits because it was funny.

Speaker 2
53:50 – 54:12
And that’s another reason why we’ve done silly dances, we were set, not this TikTok nonsense, don’t even get me started on TikTok. We’re not talking about it. But we were set silly dance challenges by, again, a couple of the DJs from Absolute Radio, and they were like, come on, come on, Marie, you know you can do it. And we’ve done silly stuff like that, you know, they’ve been put out on social media.

Speaker 2
54:13 – 54:33
Anything, and we’ve got a stepper, we’ve got two stepper machines, so we can get our step count up, like I say, we’ve got a foot bit. so we are still being able to get those endorphins around us, and Ryan’s trampoline. Yeah, trampoline, I love that little trumpet. Exactly, you know, and that’s so great for us as well, isn’t it?

Speaker 2
54:33 – 55:12
You know, Ryan gets his, you know, he loves his trampoline, but for us to get on it as well makes us happy, so it’s just fun, and also, you know, we’ve been doing, we’ve been planting, we’ve got little plant projects on the go, which have been really lovely, you know, with the weather and That’s the thing, we’ve been lucky with the weather. And that’s what we find, you know, with that whole home learning side of things, we can’t do it when the weather’s bad and we’re stuck indoors, you know, because Ryan has his home indoor routine and home learning doesn’t equate into that. But outside, different matter, we can actually get him to do a couple of little learning activities, so to speak.

Speaker 3
55:12 – 55:25
For people listening in, if they want to find out a little bit more about you, can you point them in the direction of your social media and also your website, please can you give them the links?

Speaker 2
55:25 – 55:40
Yeah, absolutely, no problem. So Autism Support Crawley is as accessible as we possibly can be. So we’ve got a website of www.autismsupportcrawley.co.uk. We have a closed Facebook page for parent carers.

Speaker 2
55:40 – 56:16
which again if you just put autism support Crawley into a Facebook search engine you’ll find that and there’s also a public one for anyone to be able to follow us as well so we have the two because we keep the closed one just for parent carers in Sussex, Surrey, Brighton & Hove, Kent, sort of Greater London we’ve had to reach out to as well. So it is a safe platform for people to be able to vent and ask questions and feel safe and celebrate the great stuff too, which is so important. And we’re also on Twitter at Autism S Crawley and we’re also on Instagram at Autism Support Crawley.

Speaker 2
56:16 – 56:22
And yeah, I’m on Twitter, you’re on Twitter, we’re all on Instagram as well.

Speaker 1
56:22 – 56:23
The virtual pub YouTube as well.

Speaker 2
56:23 – 56:34
The virtual pub YouTube, the virtual pub Instagram, because that’s what we found has been so beneficial as well, is reaching out to say, oh we’ve had a really bad day today come on pick us up you know.

Speaker 1
56:34 – 56:36
We nearly stopped but people said no keep doing it.

Speaker 3
56:39 – 57:20
So if you couldn’t grab a pen and write that all down Maria is going to be writing an article and putting all her Twitter and social media handles the article which we will share on Anna Kennedy online so that will be happening very soon so keep checking on the charity website. I just also want to remind people about the Hero Awards hopefully they’ll be going ahead in November so if you would like to nominate someone who you feel goes the extra mile people like Maria people like me So whether they’re parents, carers, professionals, a reporter that might write particularly well articles about autism, please check out.

Speaker 3
57:20 – 57:40
The closing date will be the first week in September and that is on the Autism Hero website. So you’ll find the link on our events page which is Anna Kennedy online and then hopefully in November we will have 36 finalists from the 12 different categories that will be travelling on their car. Travelling! Travelling!

Speaker 3
57:40 – 57:42
I wonder if we’ll be travelling in November!

Speaker 2
57:42 – 57:45
My goodness, what is that? What is travelling?

Speaker 3
57:45 – 58:13
Travelling down to London to the Chelsea Harbour Hotel. But as I say, we’re always thinking out of the box, trying to do different things online. All the podcasts from all my previous guests from Women’s Radio Station, they’re all on the charity website as well, so if you check out radio or media it will be on there and you can listen to various ones that you might have missed. I just want to say thank you so much Lee and Ryan in the background there, what’s he up to?

Speaker 2
58:14 – 58:23
He’s just getting his garlic bread dinner and chicken nuggets out of the microwave.

Speaker 1
58:23 – 58:25
It has to be three o’clock.

Speaker 2
58:25 – 58:29
He’s just been sitting there waiting for the clock to tick over.

Speaker 3
58:29 – 58:33
It’s been wonderful. Thank you so much. Thanks for sharing your life. Thanks for sharing.

Speaker 2
58:33 – 58:44
No problem. It’s a pleasure. Anything that we can do to help is always a pleasure. What you do is amazing and you inspire us as well.

Speaker 2
58:45 – 58:48
Like you say, never give up. We’ve got to carry on, haven’t we? Right those wrongs.

Speaker 3
58:49 – 58:51
What’s your motto, Lee? Have you got one to finish off with?

Speaker 2
58:52 – 59:05
Again, it might sound a bit of a cliche, but I always say I would not change my son for the world, but I’ll change the world for him. And that’s what we’re doing.

Speaker 3
59:06 – 59:31
Yeah, yeah, that’s that’s perfect to finish on. So again, thank you to you both. And if you want to check out the information that Marie and Lee work together on the charity, it’s Autism support Crawley, type it in Google, I’m sure it’ll come up, and they’re on Facebook, they’re on Twitter, they’re very active, and I just want to wish everyone the very best.

Speaker 3
59:31 – 59:34
Please stay strong and stay safe. Thank you everyone.

Speaker 2
59:35 – 59:36
Bye!

Speaker 1
59:36 – 59:37
Bye everyone, stay safe!

Speaker 2
59:37 – 59:38
Bye Ryan!

Speaker 3
59:38 – 59:42
Stay alert!