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On a recent day out we broke down on the return journey, an hour and a half from home. Our car started to make a strange sound - and then just kind of stopped working. It would chug along at 8mph on the hard shoulder but that was it...and so the nightmare unfolded. We were told our breakdown company wouldn’t do anything as we were in ‘limp mode’ so, in theory could still move! 😳 For our boys, both on the autistic spectrum, the unknown is genuinely hard to process without anxiety increasing to insane levels. After joining another breakdown service we had multiple phone calls and multiple promises that help was on its way, many that resulted in NOTHING happening. With each unfulfilled promise the anxiety in our boys, understandably, increased despite our best efforts. The uncertainty finally ended with a wonderful AA lady who got a taxi to come for me, the boys and the dogs and we were delivered home by 5.30am...24 hours after the adventure began! My husband arrived home with the car at 9.30am! We didn’t pay for the taxi or the car to be fixed, we were all safe and well. Despite that we were EXHAUSTED! Being sleep deprived, hungry and not knowing how or when you are going to get home is horrible. Being autistic and highly anxious in amongst all that is pretty unbearable and it was genuinely hard on our boys. We knew we WOULD get home, sometime, somehow, but mentally it was horrid. The phrase that was muttered the most during that 9 hours where the boys and I were ‘stuck’ was ‘I just want to go home!’ The day after I couldn’t stop thinking about that phrase and the feeling of being desperate for home but knowing that it wasn’t in your hands. It made me think about refugees, especially the children who, like ours, would be tired, emotional, anxious, hungry, scared and confused. I chatted to my boys and husband about this and this challenge sprouted from those conversations. So, from today, we will be aiming to walk/run/cycle 480 miles (20 miles for every hour we were away from home), before the end of the summer holidays. Friends have offered to join us and their miles will be added to the total....our dogs miles will not! 😂 We are hoping to make £240 for the charity ‘Choose Love’ which helps, in any way it can, those people who no doubt feel ‘I just want to go home’ every single day, but know they can not. I am fully aware that refugees can be a contentious issue, but Choose Love asks that all those things are put aside and we just choose to help PEOPLE. Any money at all, no matter how small, would be appreciated. Regardless of politics, borders, race or religion I hope we can simply help people - people like you and me. If it was my child crying ‘I just want to go home’ I would hope that someone’s heart would be moved to help.

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