MATT’S EPIC JOURNEY ACROSS THE CHANNEL
Due to favourable weather conditions Matt ended up setting off for France
at 5.30am on Tuesday morning.
The first 12 hours of the swim went to plan as we passed through both
shipping lanes and passed a number of passenger ferries. The only major
incident during this time was Matt getting a jelly fish full in the face -
something of a rite of passage for channel swimmers.
As we entered French waters and drew to within 3 miles of the French coast
the tide has changed which meant we were dragged sideways and back out
to sea which meant that Matt has to swum to stand still for an hour and a
half.
Despite this he battled on to beat the tide to get himself within 1 mile of
the beach.
Unfortunately this epic battle then took it’s toll. With Matt now barely
able to string a sentence together and floundering through exhaustion, the
crew took the difficult decision to take him out of the water with a mile
to go (he still wanted to carry on). By this stage Matt had been swimming
non-stop for 15 hours 47 mins.
While he didn’t touch French sand, due to the tide Matt actually swum
further than 21 miles during this period. This way an epic day and a truely
great achievement.
What’s more we have managed to raise over £2,000 for the Fred Foundation so
thank you to all of you who contributed.
Dust
He had such bad red allergy ‘panda’ rings around his eyes this morning when he woke up. I have spent all day hoovering his mattress, toys, carpets and wet cleaning all the surfaces and changing sheets. Fighting the dust is a losing battle but a severe dust allergy is not an easy thing to be on top of all the time. The worse thing is the dust -gathering books and the bookshelves in his room. Now must freeze all his rows of cuddly toys on the end of his bed! Best way to kill dust mites i am told. Bit of a pain when not much room for them in the freezer!
Fred at the V&A
Susan Newell treated a select band of Fred’s friends to a wonderful tour of the V&A’s ceramics galleries, today. Most went on to have lunch on some very ordinary white plates! How disappointing.
Back to School
He couldnt sleep last night so i feel exhausted too.
He wouldnt get out of bed this morning and said “sleepin!’ Usually he is up and about putting his clothes on in exactly the same order and asking in a terrified voice “What’s happening?” Then i have to explain the whole week and sometimes have to draw it. I coaxed him out and he went to the loo and then jumped straight back into bed. I wonder if something happened at school yesterday or is he indeed just tired - but of course he cant tell me. Although saying “sleepin” and “Go back to bed” are major breakthroughs to be celebrated when i am less tired!
Half-term
We are on the home-stretch….one more day then back to school…will be back on next week!
Sad story in the paper today
Just read a piece in a newspaper on-line today about a lady who allegedly killed her ten year old autistic son by making him drink bleach, then tried to kill herself. My heart goes out to them both.
SEN and The City..
…and the town, and the country, and the village..been listening to friends who have just had their SEN tribunal adjourned for a few months…what a stress, never mind the money – no legal aid support and no costs back if they win! It’s madness. Oh SEN means special educational needs – they are trying to get a school funded that meets their children’s ’special educational needs’ and the council do not want to fund it.
Birthday boy
This week is his birthday, always quite depressing as it is difficult to know what to buy for a little boy who can’t tell you what he wants. I went to a book shop today looking for talking books for toddlers.
Now he is older it seems even sadder buying talking books for a 2 year old when your child is a long way past being that age…but I have to look at it like this. When he was two year’s old he was so locked off from us he had no interest in any books of any type at all so we have achieved a lot! I had to explain to the lady in the bookstore how old he actually was when she was looking for books for me and her eyes filled with tears. She was such a nice lady and was desperate to help. I was cheered up by the beautiful gluten-free/nut free/dairy free birthday cake our lovely local baker has baked for him and will take it into his school later for everyone to share!
Fred at the V & A
Susan Newell, who gave us the marvellous tour of the Wallace Collection, has agreed to host a tour of the new ceramics gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Susan has been working behind the scenes at the V&A to get the galleries opened, and also running a course for them on ceramics. Join us at 10.30 on Thursday 25th February for the tour. Tickets at £20 each are available on a first come first served basis, from -
Felicity Ellacombe
Only 20 places are available, so hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!
Felicity Ellacombe
Trustee
People are odd sometimes..
A friend told me the other day about a friend of hers who is a hairdresser. He has a beautiful little girl who has autism. Doing a new customer’s hair one day the usual salon chat lead to their respective families etc. The hairdresser talked to his client about his little daughter, and all the ongoing problems they were having getting the right educational support for her from the local authority. How she was in a special school that could not meet her needs and generally about the ‘battle’ t hat all special needs parents seem to face.
They were both leaving the salon at the same time at the end of the day and his client turned to him and said “which way are you walking?” The hairdresser told him he was walking his way, at which the customer replied, ” just checking – i just wanted to make sure i go in the opposite direction so i dont have to listen to you going on about your child again…
An anxious child…
Very high anxiety at the moment, must think what to do..and what has helped him in the past. He wants things repeated back to him exactly as i have said them the first time i reply to him - desperately trying to control his environment by getting me to repeat the same thing in the same order from dawn til dusk. If i miss something out then he gets even more upset.
I musn’t feed into it and ultimately make his anxiety worse. Will tackle it tonight when back from school, must speak to school too so we are all doing the same thing.
