An Aberdeen family and their friends have raised more than £1,000 for Scottish Autism ahead of a sponsored walk in Garthdee.
Two-year-old Joel Smith was diagnosed with autism in June.
His mum Rachael Fraser, said it had been a challenging 10-month process getting a diagnosis.
“It was quite a hard road for his diagnosis,” she said. “Because obviously, same as everyone else with Covid, he was just kind of missed with appointments and health visitors.
“Nobody was visiting the house and I didn’t realise there were actually any delays in his development or anything wrong with him.”
‘I thought, my child’s not looking at me’
It was not until Joel was nearly aged two that Miss Fraser noticed something was different, when the childminder said he never responded to his name.
Miss Fraser added: “When I thought about it, I thought, ‘yeah, he’s never answered to his name.’ But I just thought he was a busy little boy.
“The more I sat back and thought about it and after lockdown seeing him with other children, I could see it clear as day.
“I thought, my child’s not looking at me. He’s not answering to his name, there’s still no words. He couldn’t even point, he still doesn’t point at anything and it was just kind of like a floodgate had opened.
“From there, you get put on a list to see the doctors but it takes months and months and months. Unfortunately, it’s just the way it is.”
Joel was diagnosed in June with autism spectrum condition, developmental delay and as non verbal as well.
Although it had been a challenging time, which often left Joel’s parents feeling “helpless” they said he is doing “amazing”.
His mum, who stays in Garthdee said: “He’s started doing things, like now anything he’s sort of needing, he guides us by the hand. So that’s his little way of communicating with us.”
Reached the £1,000 target in less than 48 hours
Knowing they will need support in the future, Miss Fraser and Joel’s dad, Bruce Smith, decided they wanted to raise awareness and funds for Scottish Autism by doing a sponsored walk.
“We wanted a charity that was Scottish,” Miss Fraser said. “And we’d heard a lot of good things about Scottish Autism.
“I started looking into their charity a lot more and they do so much for the kids and right through their life into adulthood. So we thought it was a really, really important charity.
“We’re going to have to use this charity in the future so we thought it’s really important to get as much money and as much awareness for is as possible.”
In under 48 hours of making a Just Giving page, the family were blown away when they reached their £1,000 target.
Getting the message out there
Miss Fraser said they also wanted to raise awareness and break down the stigma surrounding autism.
She added: “We want to let people know about what autism actually is because so many people, even my friends are really unsure.
“We just want to let people know that there’s so many children and adults with autism and other learning disabilities.
“And it’s so important to take the time to sit and see them and understand exactly what their needs are and their way of communicating with us and just get the message out.”
While Joel is physically capable of doing the sponsored walk, he does not have the capacity to take a lot of instructions and may spend some of it on his dad’s back.
Many loved ones will be joining the family-of-three when they set off tomorrow for the 5K walk along the old Deeside Railway Line at 10am.
Conversation