Anna Kennedy's Lifeline of Hope in the Autism Community

Welcome to Why Not Me the World? Podcast hosted by
Tony Mantor, broadcasting from Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee. Join
us as our guests tell us their stories. Some will
make you laugh, some will make you cry. Real life
people who will inspire and show that you are not
alone in this world. Hopefully you gain more awareness, acceptance,
and a better understanding for autism around the world. Hi,
I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Why Not Me the World.
Today's guest, Anna Kennedy Ope, is from England. She has
such a great story to tell. She has two artistic children,
she's involved in local charity, she's on the radio. There's
just so many things that she does, and I'm just
so happy to have her on. So welcome to the show. Well,
thank you, Tony, it's my pleasure. I understand you have
two artistic children, if you could tell us a little
bit about them.
Yes, I have two sons, Patrick and Angelo, they now
aged thirty three and thirty.
At that age when they were born, autism wasn't as prevalent.
What led you to believe that they needed to be
diagnosed for autism?
Okay, So, as I say, I've got two sons, first son, Patrick.
I had a difficult pregnancy with Patrick. I had pre
clampsia and toxemia, and I had him very early, eleven
weeks premiature. Obviously, it was quite stressful at the time
because it's your first child and he was in hospital
for ten weeks.
Wow, that's very tough.
We didn't think he was going to make it. He
had the last rites. Then he had a blood transfusion,
which was the making of him. I always remember he
was two pounds when he was born, almost like a
small bag of sugar. He was in the incubation, he
just he was making strides forward and then he would
make strides back, and he was picking up infections. And
then he had the blood transfusion. So thank you to
whoever gave the blood.
That's great. Did that make a big change for him?
It really really boosted his immune system and that's when
he started to make progress. So I brought him home
actually the week he should have been born, in March,
which was near my birthday, So a lovely birthday present.
Absolutely, that's just so good. So what led you to
believe that he might be artistic?
Thirst three years of his life he had it was
quite difficult, so he seemed to be picking up everything
he had sept the same year he had ricketts, he
had hooping cough, constantly picking up chest infections, and then
again sort of into his third year, started to become
a little bit more robust, but very clingy towards me.
Because I was in and out hospital over him all
the time, and I was the one that was spending
the nights with him. I thought, that's why he was
so clingy towards me.
Well, that makes sense for sure.
He went to the new he found that really difficult.
He cried every day, kicking and screaming, seemed to get
on better with adults rather than children.
I've heard that could be a marker.
He started at the school and again he was finding
that extremely difficult. We were going as a family, if
you like, to the hospital because to make sure he's
passing his milestones, he's having to have injections because he
had rickets, so he's having to have vitamin D injections
because he couldn't symnpthesize vitamin D in his blood. That
it was just constant going backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards.
Then he started at school, and I thought the difficulties
he's had because he had a bit of a tough start,
but then he started getting bullied at school and had
Angelo three years after Patrick was born, so Angela was
again passing all the milestones. And then when he got
to about three years old, that's when he lost everything.
So he lost his speech, had no eye contact whatsoever.
I was fixated on wallpaper patterns that we had used
to be into, like flowery wall paper. Seems to be
quite fixated on the patterns. All of a sudden, he
didn't want me to touch him at all. It was just
as you can imagine, heartbreaking because you had a child
and then and obviously being Italian, I'm a very touchy,
feeny person and he didn't want to be touched. So
I was finding that quite difficult. So then trying to
get Patrick to school, all these changes with Angelo, then
after really persevering two and a half three years, going
as a family to the therapist as well, with everything going on.
Because we'd moved from the Northeast where I used to live,
to London, I didn't know anyone, so I felt very
very isolated.
Did you have anyone that you could talk to at all?
Sometimes I remember bringing my mom just sort of crying
down the phone, really not saying very much, sure, but
it was just I felt I had to release it somewhere.
So then after that, the school said that they couldn't
meet Patrick or Angelo's needs when he was ready to
start nursery and we were going as a family to
see a therapist. She couldn't come to a meeting that
we were having at the school, so she submitted a report,
and in the report after Angelo had been diagnosed at
the age of three with autism, because I'd been reading
about autism and what it was all about, various different
forms that he could take. On the very top of
the report it said Patrick was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome
in nineteen ninety four. And then I remember the head
teacher and the people that were in the room with
us together with my husband, said missus Kennedy, why didn't
you tell us? And I just said, because I've just
found out now the same time as you.
Wow, that must have been really tough on you. How
did you handle it?
I remember couldn't concentrate on the rest of the meeting.
I just felt like a rush of blood had gone
to my head. And then I was thinking, I have
two children who are now autistic, I have no support system.
What does this actually mean? Because when Angelo was diagnosed,
no one actually sat down with me and said, this
is what autism is, this is what we can do.
When I started to do a bit of research, I
remember there was about seventeen different ways that you could
work with children who were autistic, and I thought, how
do I know which is the right way forward for
both my sons.
That's the big question I hear from everyone when they
first find out about a child this artistic is what
do I do and how do I help them?
So?
What was your game plan from there?
Again, feeling very very isolated. Then I bumped into a
parent when I was shopping and she was having a
difficult time with the son. I think it was about
three or four at the time, and I just sort
of recognized the behaviors. So I went up to and
I said, can I do anything to help you? I
had Patrick and Angelo with me at the time, and
then she told me about her son, and that's how
we became friends. We felt very isolated because at the
time as well, I was told by the local authority
of where I lived that my two sons were the
only two boys in Hillingdon where I lived, that had autism, which, obviously,
later down the line I found out that that was
not true, right, so I didn't have a skull for
my boys to go to.
Wow. So what happened from there?
Bumped into other parents and I put an article in
the newspaper where I'm still friends with a reporter all
those years down the line, and I said, there must
be other parents that have children like our children. So
then two hundred and seventy five families wrote back to
us to say that their children were autistic, or their
adults were autistic, or they were in the mental health unit,
or whatever it may be.
So what happened from there?
So we decided to set up a group and we
did at the church hall. Okay, it was a Catholic
church hall knew where we lived. First of all, it
was a small group in the lounge where I lived
at home.
How did that go?
Just people meeting up, having a cup of tea and
a chat type of thing. And then we had the
hall where we used to meet once in the afternoon
once a month, and then once in the evening for
people who couldn't get there in the afternoon. So the
group quickly grew parents like me, kids out of school,
no schools for them to go to, or again, adults
that were in mental health unit or they were at home.
So then we found out about a school that they
were going to knock down and build thirty seven apartments.
And when I went to visit it, I didn't actually
realize how as it was to where I lived. It
was very overgrown because they were gonna knock everything down
and build housing. Right, So I went to have a look.
Basically found out it was a school that was for
children that had physical disabilities. The doors were not wide
enough for the wheelchairs to get through, so they decided
to knock the building down. And then I thought this
would be ideal school for children who were autistic. There's
nowhere else for them to go. Wow. So to cut
a long story short, we campaigned they've got parents together
and they leased the school to us for thirty years.
That is just so great.
My boys went there and the school's still going. I
don't work with the school now, but I was a
director for about thirteen years there. Then I decided I
wanted to set up the charity because parents are still
writing to me as I was all those years ago,
trying to get a diagnosis, trying to find the right school.
What happens when they get to eighteen? Right? You know
there's nothing out there. So decided that I wanted to
set up a charity support parents.
That's great.
Yeah, so that's a little snapshot. Really, there's so much
more to it than that.
That's just so great how this all fell together for you.
So how old are your sons now?
Yeah, my eldest son, Patrick's thirty three. He has a
full time job. He works at Pinewood Studios. He's enjoying
his job. He's been there for five years. He's just
moved into his own black just over a year ago. Saying,
my youngest son, Angelo is always going to need one
to one support the rest of his life. He has
minimal verbal skills, has no sense of danger. He's still
at home with me, but he goes to the college
that we set up all those years ago. It's a
vocational college where that he's constantly working on his independent
living skills, receiving speech and language therapy and occupational therapy.
I'm sixty three now, and I know that I'm not
going to be able to keep doing what I'm doing,
So I'm sort of thinking about the future, right, Yeah,
So I speak to many many parents, whether they've got
children or adults, who always think who's going to look
after my loved one when I'm the longer around? And
petition at the minute where I'm hoping to take it
to ten down in the street where I've got nearly
sixteen thousand.
Signatures, that's outstanding.
A lot of the local authorities where I live actually
don't know how many parents are actually looking after their
sons or daughters at home. So if they don't know,
how can we put the right provision in place?
Right? What you just brought up is something that comes
up in just about every podcast episode I do. Parents
are scared to death on what happens to their kids
after they're gone. So this program you're working on, now,
what does that entail?
So it's a petition that I have on at the moment.
So basically parents are signing in it, or even artistic adults,
you know, because they're worried also when their parents are
no longer around. I've spoken to a couple of adults
where I say, for example, I'll give you two examples.
There's one gentleman he's both his mom and dad died sadly,
he could not live in the home where they were living,
so he ended up in a tent with his dog
and it was freezing cold, and he sent me a
message saying that he'd read about me helping this other
gentleman in Cornwall there was a similar situation, sleeping on
a bench and he just said, I'm freezing cold, I'm
in a tent, I'm with a dog. I'm trying to
access somewhere for me to live and what have you. So,
And I'm not saying that I paid for him to
stay in a bed and breakfast, but I just couldn't
bear the thought of him because it was so cold
when he messaged me with icy cold. So I paid
for him to stay in a bed and breakfast something
way be worn with the dog and a couple of
weeks and then I did a crowdfunder where I asked
people I would they like to help, So we managed
to raise some funding for him. For a few weeks.
I spoke to the crisis center and various other people
and now he's living in his own place with his dog.
Great story. Do you stay in contact with him.
He messages me now and again to let me know
how I was getting on, and he said, it wasn't
for you, Anna, I wouldn't be around. Now.
That's really great that he was able to help him.
And there's another gentleman that messaged me and his parents
died and then they moved him out of the house,
but they moved him fifty miles away from where he lives. Wow,
so nowhere near where his friends are wherever. So obviously
this caused him a lot of anxiety. And these are
the sort of stories that I'm hearing at the moment.
And also now because of these uncertain times, the cost cuts,
everything that's going on, it seems like people with disabilities
are the first to be targeted. You see where I'm
coming from.
Oh, absolutely, that's something I hear from so many people
from all around the world. One of the biggest things
I hear from people all around the world is that
people tend to, unfortunately fall through the cracks, and because
of that, they tend to be forgotten. Yes, that's where
we have to get people around the world like yourself
and others involved, because the biggest thing I think is
the issue is the understanding of artism most definitely.
You know, there's a lot of good stuff that's going
on out there. The sad thing is that a lot
of the smaller charities are the ones that are closing.
You know, the person that I speak to who looks
after our counts small charge. Everyone thinks we're a big charity,
he said, He normally looks after forty roll charities. Right.
A quarter of them now have got to close down
because they just can't keep up. And that's sad because
I think that smaller charities are the backbone of the society.
They're the ones that help the grassroots level and family.
I agree one hundred percent. Smaller charities are more local
community charities. They know the people, They understand the cultures
and everything that goes on within their society in their community,
and I think that it's just a huge, huge thing
that they get supported because ultimately they're the ones that's
going to do the most to help people that need
the help.
Yeah, if your child or your adults just been diagnosed,
try and find a local support group where there's families
that live close to you, where you don't feel so
isolated that you can speak to share information, and they
know what you're going through. I always say, there's obviously
a lot of positives as well, but there's also a
lot of negatives, and that negatives are it's how you've
got to navigate the system because it it's just really hard.
It can be quite complicated as well. It's definitely not
an easy journey.
No, it's not. I've always been told with just about
everyone that I've talked with, when they first find out
that their child is autistic, they just don't know what
to do. Yeah, they don't know who to see, they
don't know anything really because they've never had to go
through that before. Yes, it can be so overwhelming to
them because they've got a young child and they want
to make sure they do everything to give that child
the best possible chance that they can.
Yeah, and the earlier you start working with children who
are autistic, the better the outcomes. So I've seen that firsthand.
The earlier you start working with the children and the
right way that's going to work for that child is
obviously what works for one child doesn't work for another child.
Then they always say, and this is a well known saying,
if you've met one autistic person, you've met one autistic person.
Yes, I've heard that several times. So your charity is
located in London, correct.
That's right. My voice, my accent is from the northeast
of England because both my husband and I from the Northeast.
But my husband came to study at Brunell University in London, Okay,
so I followed him. Then we decided to stay here.
So we've been here for quite some time now. So
we're just on the outskirts of central London. We're sort
of being Greater London it's called.
So I see where you do a lot of things
with your charity. Yeah, I really like what you're doing
with your charity. So I have a lot of people
that listen to my podcasts that are actually from the UK.
So if someone needs some help, what's the first thing
that you would tell them?
So first of all, I get either a contact via
the telephone so I heard it ringing just now, or
they'll contact me via the charity website, or they may
like for example, just recently, i was shortlisted for Woman
of the Year on television and I've received so many
messages now from parents that saw me identified with what
I was saying. You know, how it was for me.
So they contact me and I always say to them,
whatever you do, never give up as hard as it is.
It's just like usually, which it shouldn't be. The parents
shout the loudest, get what they want. In the end,
arm yourself with information and if somebody tells, you know,
find someone who's going to say yes.
Yeah, yeah, that's that's a great, great thing to say.
Because people feel overwhelmed and they feel like it's them
against the world, and it shouldn't feel that way. The
should be a situation of where they look at them
and say, Okay, we need to do this, this, this,
and they help them and guide them.
Yeah, and also make sure that where you do go
for help that you know they are known for supporting families,
because I'm sad to say that there are a lot
of how can I say, with everything going on in
the world at the minute, social media, if you contact
someone via social media, social media can be a really
positive thing, but it also can be a really negative thing. Yes,
and there are people out there that want to make
money out of families. Yes, you know that are autistic,
But how can I say it not in a good way?
Or there's a lot of toxic people out there. I'm
coming across some now at the moment. For me, I
always say there's enough autism to go around for everybody.
Very true.
It's like, if you don't like what somebody's doing, go
to someone who you feel that can support you, that
you can identify with. You know, it's just like just
be careful because there's a lot of people are out
there not for the right reason. Absolutely, And I'm discovering
this more and more. I discovered it last week. I'm
discovering it again today and many families of contact. May
just at a call today from Ireland as well, from
a lady that was telling me about what's what's happened
to her. It's very very sad because the world is
hard enough as it is without people making it harder.
It's really sad because you're talking with people, you know,
in this particular case, you're talking with people that are
having a tough time with their children, adapting, bullying, all
these different things, and that's where they need to support
and their help, and for some charity or so called
charity to go out there and take some money or
do this or that, and then ultimately the people that
need to help, get pushed aside and don't get any help.
That's just that's just not right.
No, not at all. And there's a lot of scamming
and all sorts going on at the moment. So you
just need to be very careful, you know, don't always everybody. Yeah,
it's just it's hard. It's hard. But hey, I always
go with my gut instincts. I find it serves me.
Well yeah, me, me too, me too. So now you've
been designated OBE in England, can you tell everybody what
that is?
And that was in twenty twelve. It's Order of the
British Empire and I was recognized by the Majesty the
Queen who sadly died and I was given an OBE
by the Queen for the work that I've been doing
with special educational leeds with the charity. It was a
very special occasion. I took my mom and my mother
along with me. It was just quite surreal at that
time as well. It was a couple of people that
I recognized, sort of well known, that were received in
a cbe an obe, but I also met so many
inspiring people there. Again, as I say, it was quite surreal.
In Buckingham Palace, I met the Queen. She was talking
to me about my sons, about what I'd achieved, and
then I always remember I was there in the morning,
driving into Buckingham Palace, and then in the afternoon I
went home and not to be the toilet was blocked
and I was unblocking the toilet, and I was just thinking,
what minute I'm meeting the queen and the next minute
I'm doing stuff. Oh, you know, it's just like back
on the ground, feet on the ground.
It is.
This is you know, this is life.
It is. And that's the great thing. I can relate
to that so much. I've done so many things here
in the States with the music business things where I've
been around stars and celebrities and everything. Very next day
I'm back doing my normal, everyday thing. But that's good
because the one good part about that is you get
recognized for what you're doing and continue to do yes,
and then the next day or the next afternoon or
the same afternoon, you're back to feet on the ground
doing what you need to do, keeping it real. And
that's what it takes. You have to get the recognition
for what you're doing, but you also have to take
and be able to realize that's something that's special. But
now the reason why I got this is helping people
and that's what you do.
That's great, that's right, And it also it's great, you know,
it's lovely to receive these, you know, awards and to
have this experience, but it also might be opened a
few doors for you that were not opened to you before, right,
so you know, to be able to go forward to
do whatever it is that you know you're trying to achieve.
Absolutely absolutely, so what are some of the things you're
hoping to do here in the future with your charity?
Here in America, AGT means America's God talent. Over in
London it means Autism's got talent. So I think that's
a great thing you're doing. What are some of the
other things that you do locally?
There No Odds's Got Talents. The highlight of the charity.
We've been doing it for thirteen years now and if
anyone's listening out there, it's open to people in the
US as well. We've had people from the US that
have performed. So basically, just sending your entry, whether you're
a singer, a dancer, a musician, a comedian, a poet,
whatever it is that you do, as young as five
and as old as one hundred if if you want
to be sending your auditions and the closing date is
May twenty four, so check out the charity website and
you'll see a lot of the performers on there. We're
just about to go into do the Autism Hero Awards,
where we celebrate people that go the extra miles. It
could be a parent, a care a professional, a reporter
that writes particularly well, you know, articles about orders and
people that support the autom community. So that's something else.
I've been doing that for five years. We do the
Autism Export Brunel University where parents come along. They can
listen to speakers, or they can have advice at the clinics,
or my husband can give legal free legal advice, or
you can ask advice about behavior management or occupational therapy,
or it may be speech and language therapy. And then
also we have stands there where parents a lot of
them are parents who had to give up their job
because of what's been going on with their child. So
they've set up a stand where they sell resources. It
could be books, it could be FIDGIT toys, it could
be whatever sensory blankets. It's just something they've had to
do to set up their business so that they can
obviously live. But even though then look after some of
the dot We do free workshops online. We have an
automme consultant poll that does workshops. My husband does legal workshops.
We do benefit workshops. So that's something else. We do
a Christmas Hatred and ambassador to quite a few charities.
So we're having a Christmas Funday where we donate selection chocolates.
Select We have Selection boxes in America with lots of
different chocolates in a box.
Oh, yes, we certainly do. We love them.
Yeah, So we give those out for free. And so
that's a lovely event that we do. I get involved
in with me being patron ambassador to other charities. They
asked me to do events for them. I'm ambassador to
a lovely charity called Camp Mohawk where they've got this
piece of land. It's amazed and it's like an amazing
forest trail and they've got all these different activities and
families go together with siblings so that they can enjoy
something together because sometimes it's difficult to go out as
a family when you've got an autistic child or adult
and as siblings because it doesn't always accommodate everybody. But
Camp Mohawk is amazing place. I've been there quite a
few times now and you can see families and they're
expanding all the time. Daisy Chain is another charity and
ambassadorble in the Northeast that was set up by a
parent and mom. Sadly you didn't see it come to
Fruition because she died of cancer. But that is just
growing and growing and growing. They do so much and
that I love going to visit there. Various other charities
and so I get invited to do lots of different things.
So you know, could you come and speak or recently
did a talk for a parent, or could you officially
open something or whatever it may be. And I always
like to see what's going on as well within the
Autumn community.
Well keeps you in touch with everything and keeps you
abreast of everything that's happening, and with so many people
that need help and do contact you. Like you said,
everybody's different, everybody has different needs. So if somebody calls
you and then you met someone or you know someone
that's good that can help them, you can direct them
in a place that's going to make their life a
little easier, which is the whole part of making this happen.
And sometimes just listening to someone where they've tried to
speak to other people that you haven't had children or
adults who are autistic, and then they talk to you
and then they share something with you and I said, oh,
that's happened to me, and the goal really and I
go yes, And then they think because they think it's
it's only them or they're doing something wrong, or but
when you know, say yeah, that's happened to me, or
I've tried this, how about trying this? And it's just
about And sometimes, for example, I've a young man who
brings me I'm sort of every couple of weeks. He's autistic,
and he just wants to talk to me about trains,
like steam trains. That's his passion. So I just listened
to him. I don't really say that much. Can He
always ask me, is that you anna? I go yes,
it is, So then he tells me what he's been
up to and they'll go okay, then thank you, al goodbye.
When I first started my podcast, I basically told everybody
just what you said, this is a platform where people
can talk about what they've been through, how they adapted
to it, how they change things to make life better
for their kids or for themselves if they're autistic. My
goal was if listeners could hear this and realize that
I've gone through that, and then they all of a sudden,
here's something that can make a difference that they have
haven't thought of, that can help them, And that's a win, definitely.
It's just it's about listening to people, giving them time
and sometimes just to get it off your chest, because
sometimes they can speak to their family members and they
don't really get it and haven't known so many families
as well where they've been friends, and then once their
kids have been diagnosed, they're no longer friends.
Yeah, and that's sad, and I find.
That really sad. But hey, there's plenty of people out
there that will listen to you.
Absolutely.
I think Facebook is quite a good four families who
were autistic because they can share experiences with other parents.
For example, it might be just a really small step
for that family, but it's huge. But if they say
it to somebody else, they won't really get it. But
if you say share it with someone and just say, oh,
Johnny went to the toilet today for the first time.
You know, he's never done that before. He's ten years
old or whatever it is. But that's like a big
milestone in that family's you know, like and to somebody
else it's just like, so, what, you went to the toilet.
I agree one hundred percent. I've talked with so many
different people and learned so much and hopefully people are
getting a better understanding about what autism is and how
to handle it. Is the one thing that I feel
that was lacking in autism awareness and acceptance is they
left out the word understanding, which is the biggest thing.
I think that needs to be done.
Definitely, most definitely. And it's also like, don't criticize people
if they try various different ways or therapies or whatever
it may be, as long as it's not going to
harm the child, right. But sometimes some people say, now,
you can't do that, and it's just like, you do
whatever it is that you want to try with your
child as long as it's not invasive. But let people try.
They have to try various different things to see what
works for that child or for that ad or find
out what the triggers are for certain things or whatever
it is that you're trying to achieve. It's just like
for me, it's just like, please don't cryticalize them. It's
as hard enough as it is. They're just trying something
that they feel may work for their child, and it's
just there's a lot of people that are just very
righteous or you shouldn't be doing They just shouldn't be
doing that, And it's just like you try.
Right exactly. It's a hit and miss. Some work. I
don't but until you try something, you don't know if
it's going to work or not for your child.
Definitely, so and you know your child because you're living
with your child twenty four to seven. Obviously, Angela it's
difficult because he's got runable verbal skills, so it's a
bit of a getting game sometimes. But if you have
a child that's very articulate, listen to what they're saying
and sometimes you can just unpick what it is that's
bothering them and you'll find out what the trend is
or whatever it is that's you know, just make little
notes and just sit on it seems that he's upset
on choosday at six o'clock or at three o'clock or
whatever it is, and then you'll find what the trigger
is that might be upsetting there or him. There's various
different ways of doing things. Are always speaking to other parents.
They can suggest uff as well.
Yeah, so how do people get in contact with you
if they need you in your areas?
So we have a charity website and it's open to anyone.
So it's www dot Anna Kennedy online dot com. If
you've got any useful resources that you feelly might like
to share with us, we have a resources page. I'm
not precious about, you know. I'll have a look at
it and if I think, yeah, that's some good information,
now put that on the website. If people want to
write articles, I'm quite happy for that. Again, I'll just
have a look at it to make sure it's okay,
and then I'm happy to put articles on the charity website.
Whether you're autistic, whether you're a professional, whether you're a
care whether you're a sibling. Nice to hear from siblings
as well, you know, because obviously sometimes they feel they
have to step back a bit because of their parents
having a lot on their plate, as they say, in
this country, so I'm always interested to listening to what
people have got to say.
I had a lady on my podcast about a month
or so ago. She wrote a book about living and
growing up with her three autistic brothers. There's a lot
more than just the autistic people that people have to
think about. Yeah, sometimes it's their sisters or brothers that
are newer typical that have to deal with it as well.
Yeah, most definitely. And it's like myself. You know, my
husband's autistic, my two sons are autistic, and I feel
as sometimes I felt like it could be quite lonely
sometimes to be in a house with autistic people because
they've all got their various different interests. Also, I learned
that to fight my corner, you know what I mean.
Yeah, so to be colared.
But it's given me strength that I didn't know I had.
It's given me drive that I didn't know I had,
given me passion and enthusiasm that I didn't know I had.
And as I always say, some days good, some days
not so good.
Sure, And it's truly amazing what you've done with your
charities and with everything that you're doing. This has been
a really great conversation. What would you like to leave
people with for your final thoughts.
Final thoughts is it's a tough journey as a parent
or a care and as I always say, speak up,
arm yourself with information, put your body armor on when
you know if you're fighting for a provision or whatever
it may be for your child, don't let it get
to you too much because obviously you're dealing with an
awful lot of things. And that's my say. Some days good,
some days not so good, and never give up. There's
always to something. They just fa you'll.
Find it exactly exactly well. I really appreciate you coming on.
This has been tremendous.
Oh, thank you, Tony. Thank you for your time as well,
and thank you for speaking on Women's Radio two.
Oh yeah, I really enjoyed that and I got a
lot of good feedback from.
It, and lovely thank you and keep doing what you
do all right.
Thanks, I appreciate it. Thanks for taking the time out
of your busy schedule to listen to our show today.
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