your stories
Every parent carer has a powerful story to tell about what it's like to care for a child with additional needs. Here, some of the parents Amaze has worked with share their stories and explain how we have helped them.
She was coming in [to school] for an hour a day because that’s all they could handle, and at that point, when you’ve got a very challenging child and you’ve got them for the rest of the 23 hours, you know, you’re on your knees at that point. A lot of tears, a lot of struggles…
I started to notice that my son was different. Firstly I thought he had hearing problems, as he turned the TV up full blast and didn’t answer to his name – even when chocolate was mentioned or sweets!
When Dan was eight years old, I realized that I needed help. I just wasn’t coping – I was very depressed by the whole experience. I just couldn’t grasp the fact that we were unable to do the normal things that families do…
Things were really bad. I didn’t go out and felt really depressed. I had no help with my little boy, Finley, who was three at the time. He was delayed but we didn’t know what was wrong.
There are so many websites – “we can do this for you, we can do that for you” – but unfortunately nobody knows you. Nobody knows your child. So as you try to relate things to your own situation, it doesn’t quite fit…
We left London to escape domestic violence. Billy had a diagnosis of global developmental delay to begin with but then they said he had Asperger’s. No one had ever spoken about how the violence might have affected him…
Zoe was two when I was told about Amaze by my health visitor who referred me because it was clear there was something wrong…
For once I could not fight for my daughter. I felt totally powerless to help her. Visions of her being alone in school, at lunch, at play, everything we did flashed through my mind whilst her dad and I would struggle to keep life as ‘normal’ as possible….
If you would like to share your story with us, email charlotte@amazesussex.org.uk