Fred Foundation

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3252574/Who-care-autistic-children-grow-father-s-moving-story-fear-haunts-many.html

Hi all

As many of you know, a small group of us attempted the Welsh 3000s this time last week for The Fred Foundation (donations still gratefully accepted https://www.justgiving.com/Welsh3000sForFred)

Here’s a mini story of what happened..

It made us all pretty nervous when the official guide described the Welsh 3000s as “extremely tough, and a big step up from something like the Three Peaks Challenge… only suitable for very fit and experienced mountain walkers”. That description wasn’t wrong.

14 peaks over 3000 ft. 32 hours of solidly being awake. 27 hours of straight walking, climbing and scrambling. At 1.22am on Saturday morning we completed the Welsh 3000s challenge in 20 hours 28 mins.

Waking up at 2am on Friday, we fell out of bed and into our waiting taxi and begun Snowdon’s 1,085m ascent at 3.08am, officially started the challenge from the peak of Snowdon at 5.54am. After being battered by everything North Wales had to throw at us from constant rain to gale force wind to Sam’s poor chat, we were up and down the first 3 peaks fairly swiftly.

After the 4 mile walk to the second range of mountains, we started our way up peak 4 at the time where we would all usually be arriving for work. With the rain finally stopping but a couple of very sharp, calf wrenching inclines, and a big downhill scramble, we reached the end of this range, 8 peaks down, in the early evening. With the challenge really taking its toll, and like any good boy band, we lost a member going from a team of 4 to a team of 3.

After a change of clothes and stocking up on food and water we prepared for our final full ascent, and mountain range, at around 6pm on Friday. This was the most arduous stretch including 4 hours of the heaviest rain and wind we had, all in pitch blackness. Mentally and physically shattered, we trudged through to the final peak, reaching it in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Unfortunately we still had to get back down to the bottom which was a short 4 hours stroll up and down 3 more smaller peaks. By this time, mentally drained, severe muscle fatigue kicking in and hugely sleep deprived (Tom C frequently hallucinating that we were walking past fields of cows which in fact were just empty fields), we had a mere 2.5 mile walk to the nearest village to meet our taxi.

Nursing strained bodies and bruised egos, with ice packs and blister plasters aplenty, we could happily brag to those who doubted we could do it (all of you) that we had finished, raising approaching £1300 for The Fred Foundation.

Tom, Tom, Punesh, Sam & Renuke.

www.theguardian.com/society/2015/sep/01/antipsychotic-drugs-may-be-used-as-chemical-cosh-to-control-behaviour?CMP=share_btn_tw

Good luck to our runner Adam Foley! He has spent three months training hard so lets hope it all goes well. It is still not too late to sponsor his efforts and help The Fred Foundation.

https://www.justgiving.com/Adam-Foley

I wanted to write this email to say thank you to the donors.

When my son was diagnosed with autism he was 22 months, it was a huge battle to get him referred to be assessed and then another battle to get him diagnosed, the NHS wanted to wait till after he had turned 3!! I was not having that as all the studies highlighted the fact that early intervention is key.

Prior to his diagnosis I was already researching the interventions available for autistic children and the only therapy that I felt had any credible results was Aba therapy. It is a scientific approach with huge amount of research backing.

When I looked into the costs to run a programme I literally cried because it was beyond my means, however I couldn’t give up and I pushed on fund raising applying to charities like yourself and that is what has enabled my son to have a home Aba programme. It has worked out a little cheaper by hiring a consultant and tutors independently, however the help from the Fred Foundation has had a huge impact on the programme and the length of time I can realistically run it for, I am so grateful words cannot express, my son is improving in areas like interaction, awareness, eye contact , vocalisation this within the space of 3 months I am so happy and I really have hope for his development.

The therapy is not funded by the NHS or LEA ( without a fight usually ) We have requested an assessment for the EHCP and will be fighting for Aba to be stated on the EHCP, however the LEA has already said they do not specify Aba on the EHCPs.

It’s been battle after battle and the only thing that keeps me fighting is my beautiful baby boy who deserves a chance at life , not to be left to just sink deeper into his own world, it angers me that we are so ahead in this country in many areas however we are failing our children ….. With intensive early intervention they have a chance to lead dependant lives and at the very least progress to reach their potential.

You are amazing people for what you are doing , I cannot thank you enough and will always be grateful for the support you provided when there was no support.

Thank you so so much
Mum xx

Here is an update from Adam who is running the London Marathon for The Fred Foundation. Do please click on the link and support his efforts to raise £5000!

https://www.justgiving.com/Adam-Foley

I am slightly alarmed that it is already half way through March, which means the marathon is approaching with indecent speed. Having said that, training has progressed reasonably well so far, aside from the usual festive illnesses and injuries and I am verging on being capable of running for more than three hours without collapsing. Getting out of bed to run more than 15 miles every Saturday morning hasn’t been easy, but knowing that it will make a difference to the Fred Foundation is all the motivation I need.

Sorry we have not been updating the site for so long. We have had a technical problem, but have still been busy on Facebook and of course answering your very many e mails and requests for grants. Many of you will know that we are a very small charity and unfortunately we have had to put your requests for grants on hold until we received more money. We will be in contact when the situation changes and lovely people are working hard for us all the time, so it will change. In the mean time do think about trying to raise money for The Fred Foundation. I am sure your friends and family are distressed by your situation and are looking for ways to help you. Why don’t you suggest they raise money for us? We have virtually no over heads, so almost 100% of money raised goes straight back to the families we help. We have a Justgiving page and can reclaim Giftaid if the donor is a UK tax payer. Do get in touch if you want some help or ideas. Our families need YOU!

We are now closed for the Christmas period. If you wish to apply for funding, you should be aware that we are very short of funds at the moment. It is very unlikely that we will have more funds until February.

We wish you all a calm holiday period and good news for the New Year.

From all at The Fred Foundation.

I wanted to write to say again thanks so much for your grant and to let you and
your donors know how much it means to me and my family. My son will be 3 next
month, he has Autism, moderate/severe learning difficulties and is completely
non-verbal. It has been really difficult as he has very limited communication
which basically just involved crying and we often have no idea what is wrong or
what he needs and wants. He also had no social skills and didn’t interact with
most people, especially other children. We started ABA therapy just over 4 weeks
ago which the Fred Foundation Donation is helping to fund and the difference in
our son is already amazing. He is now interacting much more with others and his
creche reported that last week they were very shocked when he hugged another
child who was crying as he would have just ignored the other children
previously. He is now trying to communicate with us in many ways including
taking his plate out of the cupboard and setting it on the table when he is
hungry, handing us a cup when he wants a drink, taking our hands and doing the
actions to his favourite songs when he wants us to sing to him. These may seem
like small steps to other people but for our family they have been amazing and
we are really excited to see how he progresses in the next 6 months. Thanks
again for your support and I hope you continue to receive donations so that
other families can also be supported. I will send you a futher update in a few
months.

We have recently been lucky enough to win a grant from another charity called ALMT. In combination with our other donors and fundraisers we have helped 17 families to fund their specialist educational programs up to the New Year. However, when word gets out that you have funds, you get a lot of people contacting you. To date we have 13 families who we could help, but we do not have the funds.

Please consider giving us a donation prior to Christmas so that we can help these 13 families. Perhaps instead of Christmas cards, or ‘buy’ a tutor for an ASD child for a month as a gift. We can send you our Logo to put on e mails etc. Here is our link for donations.

https://www.justgiving.com/fredfoundation/

Thanks in advance!