About Giles
Giles was our only child, a beautiful baby. I'd aimed to give him a quiet, secure life and he was so contented as a baby that at first I thought we were doing rather well.
But at 8 months I took him to the doctor because I had concerns about his lack of progress. He would be totally absorbed in some trivial thing, like the sticky label on the toy car, rather than the car itself. He also went on to be late in walking and late in talking, but even with his limited vocabulary, we still enjoyed plenty of responses each day. Then he lost the little speech he had and turned into a wild, unmanageable toddler.
And then the bombshell diagnosis: Giles was severely autistic.
He became increasingly difficult, banging his head repetitively and sometimes lashing out at us. He needed constant attention and care. Like other parents of a child with autism - even those with less severe autism - the disorder dominated our lives. To make things worse, puberty hit early for Giles and he couldn't take it at all. He also developed epilepsy at this time.
These were awful, ghastly times and eventually I cracked up and Giles and I were both hospitalised. Me for a month, but Giles for 11 years. Until he was 16, Giles attended the hospital school, but then, as the years passed, Giles lost most of his human rights. We decided to remove him from his locked ward and look after him again ourselves. Progress was slow, but in between his extreme and challenging behaviour, he was a charming innocent, who loved jigsaws and his cats.
However, in 1998, Giles died unexpectedly from an epileptic seizure. Although it is a relief not to have him survive us, we miss him terribly.
In the years I have learnt to live without Giles, autism and discovering what causes autism, has become my ongoing mission, a mission that makes sense of Giles' life.
I have helped set up Autistica, for which I am President. Autistica is part of a global campaign raising funds for biomedical research into the causes of autism spectrum disorders. Much of this pioneering research is taking place by brilliant scientists in universities and research centres here in the UK. Experts say that we will make headway on determining the causes of autism in 10 years.
But long term research is very costly and I therefore urge you to support Autistica in any way you can. By helping us get closer to finding the causes of autism, you will help us get closer to improving the quality of lives of those affected
