“Walk Or Run A Mile For Autism Awareness”

An event to raise awareness of autism will take place tomorrow at St. Christopher’s School.

‘Walk or Run a Mile For Autism Awareness’, which was arranged by locally run charity, Autism Wishes will take place across the grounds of the school tomorrow.

The event will also celebrate the launch Autism Wishes, which was established earlier this year to educate and raise awareness of autism. In addition to this the charity grants wishes for individual children on the spectrum, and this year will be granting four wishes.

Autism is a lifelong development disability that affects how a person communicates with, and relates to other people.  It can also affect how they make sense of the world around them. It is a spectrum condition, which means that although people with autism may share certain difficulties, each person will be affected by the condition differently.

Autism effects 1 in 100 people, which is roughly 3000 people in Wales alone. In Wrexham there are over 200 families who have a child or relative who suffer from autism.

The charity was set up by Jo Perera, whose fifteen-year-old daughter Emily has autism. Over the past two years Jo, who works for the NAS (National Autism Society) has been running the annual ‘Emily’s Ball’, which overall raised over £12,500 for autism awareness.

Continuing on from the success of Emily’s Ball, Jo began ‘Autism Wishes’ to continue raising funds and awareness of autism.

“Following on the success of Emily’s Ball, Autism Wishes was born because I wanted to expand what we did.” said Jo.

“Alongside me heading it up, I have a team of five people who are mums with a child on the spectrum, or have a member of the family who has autism.

“What happens is, Autism Wishes raises funds for charities, one of which will always be National Autistic Society Wrexham. The second will change every year and will be decided by a committee.”

This years chosen charity is St. Christopher’s School in Wrexham, where daughter Emily attends. The school will play host to the ‘Walk Or Run A Mile For Autism’ event, and will feature 20 stalls, a bouncy castle and face painting.

Jo said: “We chose to do walk or run a mile because it’s something everyone can do. I wanted to showcase the school, in a huge ground and thought we could showcase their small animal care.

“Ian Lucas and the Mayor and Mayoress are coming down. In total we’re expecting a couple of hundred people.

“It promises to be a huge and hopefully successful event.”

Alongside raising awareness of autism and raising funds, a big factor of the charity is the ‘wishes’ element; with the charity aiming to grant four wishes to children on the autism spectrum this year.

Jo said: “I’m friends with Scott James who has aspergers and is a singer. He’s the inspiration behind Autism Wishes.”

” He has aspergers and was given an award and he had to go and get it. Basically as he can’t travel alone, which I imagine is the case for most people on the spectrum. And even though they would pay for him, they wouldn’t pay for his mum to go with him.

“So we put up a ‘Go Fund Me’ On Facebook, and I was one of many families who gave him so money so he could have his dream. Which made me think how many other people on the spectrum have these dreams and wishes, but wouldn’t be able to them ordinarily. Scott is now a patron of Autism Wishes.”

The first wish was granted by the charity a few weeks ago, by fulfilling a nine-year-old boys obsession with tractors.

Jo said: “He just lives for tractors, and asks his mum and dad questions that we probably wouldn’t understand. So we arranged for him to spend half a day with a man who builds tractors for Malpas Tractors.

“The young man got to ask all the questions, and ride on all of the different tractors. He got to drive one, supervised as well.”

Over the next 12 months, Autism Wishes have a number of events, including a Charity Ghosthunt, a Poker Fun Day and also a climb up Snowden.

The year will culminate next April with an Annual Dinner Dance at Carden Park.

“I’m doing this for me and my family as much as anyone else. We still get the stares and we still get the comments. It’s hard enough for the person who has autism without the comments.” said Jo.

“If we all do a little bit, then that becomes big and the awareness grows.”

‘Walk Or Run A Mile For Autism Awareness’ is £5 for adults, £2.50 for children and £10 for a family ticket. The event starts at 10:00am and will finish at 2:00pm.

More information on the work Autism Wishes do and future events can be found on their Facebook page here.