Help us to create an ASD friendly holiday home

Hello Everyone,

Firstly THANK YOU for reading my story:

I’m a super proud mum of three boys 1,8&14.
My 8&14 year old have Autism, Like most other ASD families will know this limits a lot of things you can and can’t do. 

For instance my 8yr old has the disorder severely and he scream and shouts loudly very often, He also bangs walls and doors and just about anything else he can find day and night! 

Again like all other families that can relate to this I’m sure will agree, daily life can be difficult and stressful to say the least. 

The one thing we look forward to is being able to go on holiday abroad once every year or two. However as our children have grown their behaviours have become more challenging (in one child a lot more than the other to be fair) and we have struggled to find a suitable place to take them. 

We used to go to hotels or apartments till we started getting complaints over my sons noises and screams. The stress of knowing your upsetting other people’s holidays that they have paid a lot of money for is enough to make us not enjoy our hard earned holiday! 

We had booked a villa holiday (which cost a lot more than we expected and struggled to afford) due to covid this has been delayed but we already are on edge with worry over our son breaking something and having to be a life guard 24/7 due to the pool not having an enclosure (we couldn’t find a villa that had both an enclosed pool and garden, we chose the enclosed garden option so looks like my boy will be sleeping in his life vest!) 

After doing some research to try and see if there was a specialist travel company we could go with we found little options available that cater specifically for mentally disabled people/families. The very few I did find were VERY expensive and as there are 5 of us in my family it just made a holiday with them Impossible. 

This showed me a gap in the market and I would LOVE to be able to fill that gap for my family and others too! 

So for a while now we have been saving every spare £ to purchase a special holiday home in Spain ideal for ASD families and other mental health families too I hope. 

I would like to rent it out to those families for a very down to earth reasonable price. 

THE IDEA IS:

To buy a single storey detached property in Spain (less than a 3hour flight)

Somewhere English food is easily purchased for fussy eaters 

No immediate neighbours (so they can make as much noise as they like without people having to worry about upsetting others) 

To have reinforced waterproof beds and waterproof bedding 

A large Nappy Changing Table/Area 

No breakable ornaments (very minimal interior)

Tall Fence/Gate around the pool area (so you don’t have to be on guard 24/7) 

Locks on all cupboards and drawers (again so you don’t have to be on guard constantly) 

Tap locks (no flooding worry’s) 

Window locks that only allow you to open the windows a small way (no panicking of anyone climbing/falling out of one) 

A tall fully fenced/gated garden (a safe place to play and relax) 

TVs high up on the walls

This would be somewhere you wouldn’t have to worry all the time about your ASD person breaking something, it would be as safe as possible and if they did find something to break, we understand these things happen! 

I would also like to provide some items that may help make a more peaceful holiday such as:

A trampoline

Space Hoppers/Peanuts

Sensory Toys

Sensory Lights 

Dark Den

Beanbags (In a extra strong waterproof material) 

And just about anything else that the money will stretch to get to make life easier for ourselves and others.

Not all of the above appeal to or help our children but I would still like to provide them for other families who they will help. 

Ive not set up one of these pages before so I’m not sure how it works but if someone that donates would be interested in spending a holiday there when it’s up and running please by all means let me know if your able to via this...

Also if anyone has any other suggestions on equipment that may help that I haven’t thought of again please let me know also as I would like to create as safe and as happy place as possible as I know ASD families certainly deserve a holiday! 

Please know every penny donated will go towards what I’ve stated! 

Some people may think we are just asking for a holiday home to be bought for us. 

To those people, this is NOT the case!! 

The home will cost a minimum of twice the goal amount set on here so we will be personally adding that ourselves. We were advised to set up a crowd funding page to help us reach our target a bit faster via donations. 

Lastly even if you choose not to donate I would still like to thank you for taking the time to of read my story and I hope you can share the link to my page.

If you have chosen to donate I would honestly like to THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!! You will be helping me to help so many others!

We are just fighting to make something exist that should already exist

LETS MAKE THIS HAPPEN FOR SO MANY PEOPLE TO ENJOY!!!!!

Charlotte x