Shoplifting…made me smile today
Taken from The Times – Tom Bickerby’s diary on his son Alex, who has Down’s Syndrome
On reflection, I recognise that i have undergone a subtle personality change since Alex was born. Time is so short every day that I am much quicker to feel frustration, and act on it, when someone or something tries my patience. For example, there are friends I remain hugely fond of but no longer choose to see as long as I feel lthey haven’t properly engaged with the changes in my life since Alex arrived.
Two significant old friends of mine have all but dropped out of my life, and I’ve allowed it because of my diminishing interest in repeatedly making them feel all right about not knowing what to say.
My free time is a limited resource, so I guard it jealously and hate to waste it. The feeling of having squandered potential sleeping-time on a bad night out makes me weep. Fortunately, last weekend’s dinner party was a timely reminder that a good night out is a tonic, and the other guests (most of whom I’d never met) were perfect judges of how to approach the subject of Alex.
I don’t know why some other people, who have known me for years should find it so hard….
A couple of years in the life of one of our families….
FRED made it possible for us to continue to fight to get the right solution for G. It took a tribunal, two court cases, and two further court actions to come to an agreement with our Local Education Authority. In the end we have arrived at a great result for our son, his family and the Local Education Authority . Without FRED we could not survived the gruelling process, as they supported him in his current placement thus ensuring that G suffered the minimum of disruption and change while matters were sorted out.
FRED backed us because they saw our determination, and recognised that we had a very strong case.
Without FRED none of this would have happened.
FRED saved our family.
The school with more teachers than pupils…Louis Theroux reports
** A very different sort of school **
With autism diagnoses rising more and more parents are plunged into a battle to get their child treatment, writes Louis Theroux.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/news/magazine-17755247 >
Extreme Love – Louis Theroux on Autism BBC2
”In the end, I came away from my trip in New Jersey impressed, more than anything else, by the patience and love shown by the parents of the autistic children.”
Extreme Love is a great, and desperately sad documentary. Louis Theroux shows how it really is for the parents. I salute all of those parents for being so honest and I thank him for bringing this to a mainstream audience.
Just Living A Day in the Life Of…
Sorry i haven’t been in touch lately things are tough, tough, tough. Will be back next week. Over and out for now.
FRED AT THE ROYAL PARKS HALF MARATHON!
Yes we have 20 tickets, and on Sunday 7th October Team Fred will be running the Royal Parks Half. Watch this space for details
Fred has done it again….thanks to all our supporters
Subject: Re: Fred Funding
Dear Felicity,
Writing to tell you that West Sussex agreed at panel yesterday to fund P at our chosen special school from September.
Fantastic news and we genuinely could not have achieved this without your help.
This is a complete affirmation of Fred’s purpose and how it genuinely impacts and changes the lives for the better of family’s in our situation.
We will call you after the break.
Happy Easter
.
It’s Easyfundraising for Fred…
I’m helping The Fred Foundation to raise money whenever I shop online -
could you do the same?
It’s very simple – just visit
http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/thefredfoundation/ to register and
shop with over 2000 well known retailers like Amazon, Argos, M&S, eBay and
many more. Whenever I buy something, the retailer makes a donation to The
Fred Foundation. They’ve helped other causes raise over £2,000,000 so it
really does work.
I’d be really grateful if you could use easyfundraising too. It won’t cost
you a penny extra to shop through easyfundraising and you can even save
money with special offers and voucher codes.
Plus, if you register before 1st March you’ll automatically receive one
entry into the February competition to win an Apple iPad 2!
So please make a difference to The Fred Foundation and take a look at
easyfundraising today -
http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/thefredfoundation/
Thanks
The Fred Foundation Newsletter DECEMBER 2011
THE FRED FOUNDATION NEWSLETTER
Dear Friend,
As Christmas approaches, you may have been wondering what The Fred has been up to in the last year. We thought it best to let just a few of our families do the talking…
Maisy’s Mum
Our daughter is nearly 6, non-verbal and has epilepsy, autism, severe learning difficulties coupled with challenging and self-harming behaviour. The Fred Foundation saved us in two ways:
Firstly, they helped us to keep funding our home ABA education programme after we had lost at tribunal when our appeal was 6 months away This funding enabled our tutors to keep working with our daughter and to deal immediately with her challenging behaviour and self-harming until we could get her into an appropriate educational setting.
Secondly, without the Fred Foundation we would have sunk both financially and emotionally; the support and funding they provided gave us a real feeling of hope and that there was someone out there who understood what we were going through. We can never thank them enough
Happily we won our case at appeal and our local authority has been ordered to fund Maisy at a school that can meet her needs! Maisy loves school- she cannot wait to get there everyday and her progress has been astounding. Self-harming is decreasing while eye contact and social interaction is increasing
Andy’s Dad
We heard about Fred Foundation and gave them a ring. In a very knowledgeable, understanding and professional manner we got help pretty much straightaway.
Andy still has a long way to go, don’t get me wrong but it is impossible to describe the feeling we have now, it is like we have grown wings. Every day (literally) we see our son making progress: saying new words and doing new things.
Fred Foundation is a truly very special and unique charity. It transforms people’s lives, gives them hope, but the best thing about it is that it took away that horrible gutting feeling – mixture of “guilt, shame and despair” that a parent feels when they know what their autistic child needs now right now but cannot give them.
Mark’s Mum
Without the help of the Fred Foundation, there is no way we could have continued to fund his tutor to give him the amount of input he requires. You are THE ONLY people that have given us help and we have approached many. We can never thank you enough. Without this therapy, and of course a very gifted tutor, we are sure, BEYOND DOUBT, that he would be a very different boy, and as a family, life would be very different
Jake’s Mum
After the Local Education Authority suddenly removed all financial support for our son’s ABA educational funding (previously awarded after SpecEd.Needs Tribunal and High Court action) out of the blue, a little of ray of light appeared in what was becoming a bottomless pit of anxiety, despair, confusion and instability. That light is The Fred Foundation.
The charity is unique in that it supports children whose parents have lost at Tribunal, but continue to need to give their children therapy and education which the LA refuse to provide – in my case recommended by every professional that has known and worked with my son. This disregard for advice can mean that the most vulnerable in our society can be left to flounder and only have the promise of an uncertain and bleak future.
Thanks to the unwavering support of The Fred Foundation, I have been able to keep the worst worries from my son and he was protected from the dreadful truth that we had lost everything at Tribunal. Thanks to Fred he is making remarkable progress, he is achieving, developing and is able to venture into new environments. I hate to think what would have happened without Fred. Now I truly believe that he has a chance to contribute to society and hopefully experience the positive things in life that the rest of us take for granted.
Some words from a few of our families, but this last account sums up exactly what we have managed to do for all our families, provide bridging finance to support their child’s education after they have lost at a Special Educational Needs Tribunal. This enables them to appeal and fight on, in many cases at the High Court, in order to get their respective Local Education Authorities to provide an education that meets their child’s needs.
Absolutely none of this would have been possible without you so do please give yourselves a pat on the back or five.
Many friends have been busy running/climbing/walking for us and raising funds. However, with so many families crying out for our help, we have been getting through funds at an alarming rate and would love you all to speak to us if you have any kind of fundraising ideas. You can use the Justgiving site to help you with your fundraising and now their Text service – text FRED11 to 70070 to donate funds to the charity.
Some of you will still have your ears ringing from the Fred Rocks 2 gig that Duff and his friends the Telford 6, Richard Haworth and DJ Miss Feelgood held last month in South London. We are glad to say we raised £2,000 that night so a big thank you to them. Do watch our Fred Facebook page and website for upcoming photos and a YouTube link!
Easyfundraising
Well as Christmas is well and truly almost upon us it is time to remind you of the Easyfundraising site.
This is how you do it. Go onto www.easyfundraising.org.uk sign in and choose your charity to support – The Fred Foundation. Pick the retailer you want to shop at and click on their logo. You immediately go to the retailer’s site as normal and shop as normal. After you have bought something you will find you have an e mail from Easyfundraising telling you how much money you have raised for Fred. Simple!
And, now, for those of you who want to know what is happening to the boy young Fred the inspiration behind our charity! As you know his parents moved house solely for him. Happily he has been funded at school by Buckinghamshire for the last couple of years and continues to thrive. Life is just as exhausting for his family, if not more so now as puberty hits, but at least his school life is happy.
And on that note, I am so happy to leave you with a piece of really special news – a couple of days ago now, Fred, aged twelve, asked, for the very first time in his life, for a Christmas present. “New Harry Potter dvd – want it for Christmas present”, he said.
I am sure you can imagine his parents’ delight but please know also that without all your support for Fred over the last few years, he would never have got to this point. His family was able to win their fight to get him into an appropriate educational setting and therefore give him the best chance to reach his potential.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!
FELICITY ELLACOMBE
Founder and trustee
Our accounts are available to look at on the Charity Commission’s web site www.charity-commission.gov.uk
