1100km run for KS Preschool in April

On the 28th January 2021 our little boy Bertie was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder with speech and language delay  and sensory difficulties. 

With the limited knowledge we do have so far, here is some brief info below about Bertie and what I’m hoping to achieve.....

Berties main difficulties are his communication and sensory skills so currently at 4yrs 4 months his vocabulary would be similar to an 18-24 month old. Bertie can’t tell us that he needs the toilet, he can’t tell us if he feels poorly, or what he has done at pre school, so even the simplest of things we all take for granted on a daily basis are a really big challenge for him. If one of you saw us in the street and said “Hi” to Bertie it’s really unlikely he would know to say “Hi” back. He can say the word “Hi” but he would probably process that as you just making a statement rather than understanding that he should reply.  Once one of us told him to say Hi he probably would do. 

Bertie has no danger awareness at all so if you see us walking around the village you may see one of us trying to stop him from running in the road. Or if we are walking by the canal he would just try and jump in if one of us doesn’t hold on to him tightly. 

With his sensory issues things can be a little bit more complicated. Berties main trigger is crying. If we’re at the park and a child has even the quietest of cries, Bertie will have a complete meltdown and be inconsolable until we leave. At school Bertie has to wear ear defenders to drown out the noise of louder children or to stop him from hearing the other children cry. This could also be if he sees someone cry on the tv so we have to quickly change the channel. It’s almost like he thinks the pain that the child/person is feeling is actually happening to him. Sometimes at its worst it looks like he’s in physical pain.

Sometimes we can be walking and he will just lie on the ground for a few minutes almost like he’s trying to process everything that’s going on around him. And I guess that’s the main thing we have learnt so far. Being Autistic doesn’t define who Bertie is....... he’s just living with Autism. It just means he process’s things completely differently to how the rest of us do and that’s going to take time for us all to learn more about. I’m not sure we will ever completely understand it but hopefully as he gets older and his communication improves he can tell us how he’s feeling and we will adapt to suit him. 

Since getting a diagnosis we have decided that we would like to do some fundraising to not only raise awareness of Autism but also raise some much needed money for charities that can be a huge help to people and families that Autism effects. 

For my first fundraiser, I would like to raise some money as a massive thank you  for somewhere that has had a hugely positive impact on Berties life so far.

Berties preschool and it’s staff in Kings Sutton have gone above and beyond since he started there in 2019 to try and make even the smallest of things that little bit easier for him. The staff do amazingly well to help Bertie along and make sure he enjoys every day that he’s there as much as possible.

After explaining to some good friends that I was intending on running 100k in April (Autism awareness month), a few of them said they’d like to do it with me so I have drafted in 9 mates that are all going to run 100k each. I then explained to Berties brother what I was doing and he and his mate Freddie have agreed to run 50k each taking the total to 1100k in a month between 10 adults and 2 lazy teenagers :) 

Between the 10 adults we have about 4 good backs, 6 good ankles, 7 good knees and some hamstrings that you could play afine tune on. The most activity that the two teenagers have done in the last year is walk from their game consoles to the fridge so they will find it equally as tough. Throw in the fact that one of the group lives in Darwin - Australia, where humidity is about 90% and another member of the group will become a father in the next couple of weeks it will quite frankly be a miracle if we all manage 100k each. We have already stated that if any of the group cannot complete their allocated 100k then the rest of the group will make up the difference so fingers crossed for no injuries.

We would all really appreciate any small donation you could manage to try and raise some money for a place that has helped our little boy out so much already. 

Thank you
Olly