We have always enjoyed strong support from The Northampton Rugby Club and next year will be no exception. The Virgin London Marathon takes place on 25th April 2010: six runners from the Saints: Jim Mallinder, Allan Robson, Brian Facer, Ross Stewart, Nicola Cobley, and Andrew Kendrick have bravely committed to representing Autism Concern in this world famous event.
If you want to help them in reaching their target of £6,000 you can donate and leave a message of support for them via their Just Giving page on
http://www.justgiving.com/NRFC
Many of you will have followed the progress of Jon Sleightholme our president and his team as they cycled from Northampton to Poitiers then onto Marburg to complete the Twin Towns Challenge in June 2009. This fund raising initiative was in response to our appeal for funds in October 2008 and has on its own raised over £35K, by far our largest single fund raiser in our history.
Other events have followed on from its success much of our fund raising in 2010 are as a direct result of the increased profile the project has brought us.
Huge thanks to Jon, Peter and all the team
for this magnificent effort.



As a specialist provider of services we were delighted to be able to increase our provision in 2009 to encompass a new holiday scheme in Daventry. 18 new families were able to enjoy the Holiday scheme run from Ashby Fields School. This site will be added to the existing schemes which we run from Northampton and Kettering during Summer and Easter. Additional half term days are also being planned.
I am also delighted to be able to report that were have started a Saturday provision, again funded by the aiming High initiative. We have long been aware of the need to increase the leisure opportunities for our children at the weekend in keeping with their peers and the importance of providing short break for mums and dads to spend time with other family members.
At the moment this is a pilot project for children aged 8-16 from in the Northampton area. Plans to roll out this project to other areas are currently being assessed.
Part of our commitment to this service is
the recruitment of a dedicated Coordinator
to manage the day to day operations in addition
to acting on other initiatives and opportunities.
Previously we engaged Barbara Payne, a name
familiar to many parents, to manage the first
wave of this expansion. In October
she was joined by Sandie Evans who is currently
working on the Saturday programme and now
available to answer any questions you have.
For more information contact Sandie Evans
on sandie@autismconcern.org or 01604 239404
