A brighter future for young man in a world that makes no sense

Cambell, 20, is severely autistic and abhors change, needing constant reassurance in a world that doesn’t make sense.

“He wasn’t a happy baby,” says his mother Sally. “We realised when he didn’t speak as early as his sister Meredith he was different.

“He just couldn’t adjust from one situation to another even when he was a toddler. He was quite a cuddly little lad, but he wasn’t hearing, he wasn’t taking in any information.

“He was obsessed with Spot the Dog. He loved watching him on telly and as soon as it went off he went into absolute panic mode.”

Sally was pregnant with her third child, Rob, when Cambell was diagnosed with autism.

Communication is a major issue – Cambell may say a word, but otherwise doesn’t share information at all.

When he comes home first port of call is a folder full of stickers – some dog-eared after years of use – which he can use to signal what he wants, be it Sally, husband Kerry, a drink, a sausage, game or aspirin.

Sally, from Hessle, near Hull, said: “The most important thing for him is to know exactly what he is going to be doing, how long it is going to last and what he will be doing next.

“He needs to have total structure all the time, otherwise he doesn’t know where he is in his head.”

Cambell need constant reminding of the simplest activities – washing, brushing his teeth, getting dressed, going to school. If not Sally says he would probably sit watching a video all day, and then eventually without realising why, get frustrated and angry.

When he becomes stressed he bites his knuckles and hits himself on his forearm. When he gets really upset he may even lash out at her.

But although Cambell clearly needs one-to-one care, there isn’t a service locally that meets his needs, meaning at the moment a marathon 120-mile round trip to Wakefield in a taxi every day.

That’s all about to change with the launch of a new service run by a charity of which Sally has just become trustee.

The Find3 service will be based in empty offices at the back of the Co-operative in the centre of Hessle.

There will be one-to-one care, a full programme of structured activities, and an annexe acting as a “real life” bedsit, where youngsters can learn valuable skills like cooking and homework.

Sally whose brainchild it was, says it came to her as an epiphany. After years of “twittering” at the local authority and getting nowhere about the need for an adult service – the only option most parents are given is out of county residential care – she decided to go it alone.

“I decided to set up my own service. I thought we’d remortgage the house and set up on our own.”

Fortunately she didn’t have to take as dramatic a step and a conversation with the chair of the trustees at local charity Find Charles Hodgson, led to results, far more quickly than she expected.

She said: “I thought it would be years away, but here we are with a two-storey office building in Hessle. Of course it is not cheap – but there won’t be the taxi driver’s salary for a kick-off.”

Jo Carden, whose son Alec, 15, is also severely autistic, is hoping he too will go to the new centre. But Jo who lives in Willerby, near Hull, knows it will be a fight.

She said: “We are crossing our fingers. The local authority would rather he stay in education as it’s cheaper, but we desperately want him to go there.

“Alec has such severe needs he is completely non-verbal, but he’s lively, constantly on the go. He needs to be in a smallish environment with people with similar needs.

“Putting him in a special school that’s attached to a new academy – he’s 6ft and when he gets stressed he strips completely naked – I just think it is totally inappropriate.”

While Sally accepts Cambell’s condition won’t improve, there’s hope his quality of life will. One day she hopes he will be living in a shared house with support, maybe with one other person with a similar condition.

What she doesn’t want to happen is what she saw on a recent visit to a council-run day centre: “There was an older man in his 40s, sitting in a chair rocking back and forth, holding a teddy. I thought it’s not going to be my son.

“We just got in the car and wept. It was a pleasant environment – but what got me was they thought it was acceptable.”

Bringing hope amid disability

FiND – which stands for Families for Individual Needs and Dignity – was set up by parents in 2002 and already runs two successful schemes, one providing stimulating and fun activities for youngsters with learning disabilities at venues in the East Riding.

The second, based at the Chandler Centre in Beverley, supports youngsters once they have left full-time education, with life, social and independence skills.

The new Find3 service aims to be self-financing as more young people with disabilities are given personalised budgets to buy their own services.

But grants, donations and fundraising are needed to cover modifying the building and buying equipment. For more information visit www.findcharity.org.uk