Staff member Jack takes on 100-mile challenge for Autism Together

“I think about 15 years ago, I didn’t even know what autism was,” said Jack. “Then I met my now wife, and her son had a diagnosis and I started to learn about it then, and I just really wanted to do it as a career.”

Jack’s own journey
Jack reveals that a few years back he received his own autism diagnosis and later he and his wife had a son together, Jacob, who is autistic with high support needs, profound learning disabilities, and a sensory processing disorder. Jack is also stepfather to two autistic children.

“I’m on a bit of a personal journey as well this year. I’m doing really well,” Jack explains. “I’d had a particularly bad year, because my son had to move out into residential 18 months ago and it took a lot to bounce back from that.

“But I just want to help really. Autism is a massive part of my life and I really want to give back to those with lived experience, like myself and my family.”

Jack decided September was going to be the month he challenged himself to improve his fitness and raise money for Autism Together.

September’s 100-mile challenge
“I’m challenging myself because I’ve also had issues with my weight and fitness over the years, and this year I’ve done so well. I’m down 64kg now and I seem to be getting fitter. But it’s still a challenge to walk 100 miles in a month.”

Jack plans to get out for daily walks during September, to make this walking challenge part of his daily routine. He will be doing long local walks around Wirral, especially in areas where there is water nearby.

“I do like to go to places, especially if it’s got water by it. I could walk by water for hours, I think. I absolutely love water. Just the peacefulness of water, I could sit and look at it for hours. Just being out in nature, to be fair.”

So, Jack is just beginning his September challenge, and he’s hoping to raise at least £500 for our charity. But fundraising was only part of his challenge – he also hoped to get more confident at talking about autism and his own diagnosis.

“I want to get more comfortable about speaking about it because I’m still in that grey area, I think. It’s a struggle at times and I can mask it very well, but I think it’s just my era of growing up as well – it wasn’t really recognised, so I was just labelled difficult.

“It’s a big thing to get out there and talk about it, but I kind of want to – as part of my personal journey of being more comfortable about saying ‘I am autistic’.”

Support Jack’s challenge
If you’d like to support Jack on his fundraising challenge this month, head over to his JustGiving page today:
www.justgiving.com/page/jack-brown-1at.

Best of luck, Jack, on smashing your 100-mile target!