Hi, we are full time carers to our 9 year old twins Ava and Matthew. Both the children have Autism with Ava also having severe intellectual disabilities, non verbal and living in her own little world. We had to give up working 2 years ago to care for our children due to their complex needs and both Matthew and Ava only sleep for a few hours a night and need a great deal of supervision. We were both burnt out and realised that our children need both their parents 24/7 to help them in this world. As unpaid carers, and having to pay a mortgage, you can imagine how difficult our financial situation is and every little penny that we have spare is used to pay for what the kids need.

So this is where we really need your help, the kids love the outdoors and are in the garden almost all year round. It is secure and has almost everything they need in it but unfortunately we have a large decking area and it is now at the stage where it is too dangerous for them to play on due to it rotting away. This takes up a large proportion of the garden and underneath is a massive hole so the whole lot has to be replaced to make it safe again. Ideally, if a section could have a covered area then Ava could be bouncing on her trampoline whatever the weather!

We are heartbroken that we cannot afford to pay for this ourselves and really don’t like to ask but it is essential that this work gets carried out to ensure the safety of the twins and to help them have the play space they need.

Anyone that has met our children knows how hard we work with them to help them get through each day. Matthew follows rules so much that we couldn’t get respite help during Covid because First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, had said no one outside your family was to go into your house. Matthew couldn’t accept that it was ok to have an exception to the rules for his family, so in order to get respite Nicola Sturgeon kindly sent Matthew a video message to tell him it was ok to let the carers come in.

Thank you so much for reading our story and if you can please help with any amount of donation it would be greatly appreciated.

If anyone knows of some joiners who could donate their time and talents we would be forever grateful.

Erica, Kelly, Matthew & Ava