Having one child diagnosed as autistic is traumatic, but then when you are told your second son and your husband also have the condition, life can get very tough.
"It's quite mad in our house," jokes Anna Kennedy, mother of Patrick, now 18, Angelo, 15, and wife of Sean.
Getting the diagnosis for her boys was just the start of their problems
"I was at a meeting when I discovered quite by chance that Patri
ck had been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome more than a year earlier," explains Anna.
Asperger's is a type of autism, and Angelo had been diagnosed with autism a couple of years earlier.
"I was unable to concentrate on anything being discussed because I was thinking, 'both my boys have autism. This is terrible'. What had I done wrong?
"I'd been looking forward to a more relaxed way of life than my own regimented childhood and to things like days on the beach with my kids, but now all my aspirations seemed like a distant memory."
Placed in mainstream nurseries and schools, Patrick and Angelo endured traumatic experiences in a system woefully equipped to cater for their complex needs. Turned down by 26 special needs schools, Anna was determined that her children should have the education they deserved.
So she and Sean decided upon a course of action that most people would never even contemplate – founding a special school dedicated to the care and education of young people with autism.
Anna re-mortgaged her house and begged, borrowed, persuaded and cajoled individuals, local councillors, companies, charities and the media, until Hillingdon Council let her have disused school premises. All this while coping with the inevitable dramas of a family with two autistic children (and the realisation in 2003, that her husband, Sean, also had Asperger's syndrome).
Hillingdon Manor is now a Centre of Excellence and provides education for 85 children from the age of three-and-a-half to 19. Anna has also helped set up the West London Community College to provide further education and the Old Vicarage Residence where autistic adults can live with the support of staff.
Earlier this year she published a book, Not Stupid, and she will be speaking at a conference organised by the National Autistic Society's Harrogate and District branch on Tuesday.
To order a copy of Not Stupid by Anna Kennedy from the Yorkshire Post Bookshop, call free on 0800 0153232 or go to www.yorks
hirepostbookshop.co.uk. P&P is £2.75.AUTISM FACTSAutism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with, and relates to, other people.
It is a spectrum condition, which means that, while all people with autism share certain difficulties, their condition will affect them in different ways.
Some people with autism are able to live relatively independent lives
but others may have accompanying learning disabilities.
People with autism may also have over or under-sensitivity to sounds, touch, tastes, smells, light or colour.
Autism, which was first diagnosed in 1943, affects 550,000 people in Britain.
The ratio of those affected is boys to girls 4:1.
The main characteristics are difficulties with interaction, communication and imagination.
There is no cure for autism but much can be done to ensure the person can develop skills such as being able to communicate more appropriately.
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