Sarah's Volunteer Story

I am Sarah, I’m 48 years old and I live just outside Lurgan with my husband Shane and 4 kids. My youngest Enda was diagnosed with autism just before his 3rd birthday and he’s now 18 years old.  Enda wasn’t speaking and I spoke with a speech therapist who referred him to be assessed. My whole world disappeared from me, I never thought there was anything wrong just maybe he was slower to talk than my other kids. The day he was referred my husband came home with print resources on autism, and Autism NI’s number was on one of the information pages. I phoned and spoke with the most amazing woman, she listened to my story and my tears, and she was so helpful and gave me a lot of advice and encouragement.From that day I kept in touch and after Enda’s diagnosis my husband and I went to Autism NI’s support group meetings at our local school which we found to be very helpful.  Once Enda got a bit older and more settled into school, I seen an advertisement for an autism ambassador which I applied for and was accepted. It was an amazing opportunity to represent Autism NI and give back a bit to the charity that we as a family got so much help from. Just before Covid, we had arranged to start a group for the Portadown/Lurgan/Craigavon area but because of Covid we couldn’t do face to face, so we started over zoom which was very helpful to have that lifeline for families, we have continued that and we now have been meeting in person for over 2 years. Personally, I think these groups are a great help to parents who can come along and meet other parents in the same boat and talk without worrying about being judged. The best part of volunteering is meeting other people who are in the same position as yourself and realising that we are doing an amazing job with our children and young people, and we are a great community. If you’re thinking about volunteering go for it, the support you get not only from other members but from Autism NI is wonderful.