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Why?

We are doing this ride to raise money for Research Autism. We are aiming to raise £20,000.
We are supporting Research Autism because my cousin Jamie is severely affected by the disease, and I have seen its effects not only on him but on the whole family." He is 13yrs old, but cannot yet talk.
Just take a moment to imagine not being able to talk.
Imagine understanding everything going on around you, but not being able to comment.
Imagine having to be dressed every morning in clothes you don't choose, and then hurting your parents as you try to tell them you wanted the blue shirt today.
Imagine being swamped by having to hear everything that everyone is saying around you, and not being able to listen to just one thing at once. Jamie loves being in a swimming pool, just floating, legs held motionless by the weight of the water, while he keeps his ears underwater to just relax, hearing nothing.
He understands everything - he appears to have a photographic memory - but can’t get his thoughts out.
Frustration leads to despair, and anger, which is just one of the many things that his family has to deal with.
He has extremely specific eating requirements and requires round the clock supervision. Jamie is at the severe end of the autistic spectrum, but given that one in 100 people suffer from the disease (with varying severity), and that everyone has some autistic traits, it is shocking that so little is known about it'.
Click here to support our cause and donate to Research Autism.
Read the "Meet Jamie" post - the only post in February, for more information about Jamie, and a poem - painstakingly slow for Jamie to type, but ultimately incredible.

Photo Video - New York to St Louis

February 9, 2010

Meet Jamie

Jamie turned 13 last week, but he still cannot talk.

The biggest breakthrough in his life so far was to teach him to type. This gave him a means of communication, so he could tell us what he knows, and what he needs. Intervention of this kind is what Research Autism aims to do, so that Autistic people can communicate with you and I, taking them away from a life of loneliness.

He goes to a school for the disabled now, and he is the most disabled of all of them, despite the fact that in theory autism is not recognized as a disability. Research Autism seeks to raise Autism’s profile, so people with autism can be helped and understood more easily. He loves having a lot more friends now, as his fellow pupils in school are very kind and have helped him feel more normal.
Here is a poem written laboriously by Jamie age 11, over a period of two weeks, with one finger.


Do you know the real world of autism
Do you know how it feels to be autistic
Do you know what it means tó be autistic

Go to my world, you will see
Go to my world, you will know
Go to my world, you will hear
Go to my world, you will feel it

Go to my world, you will detect
Go to my world, you will find out
Go to my world, you will discover

Did you know that I wish to be normal
To feel like you
To think like you
Feel my head’s pain
Feel my heart’s pain

Jeff was autistic and once said
Feeling great about yourself is when you tantrum.

You blow off the roof
You try your best to hurt people
You go to the top
Hoping to scare off people

Nothing can get rid of the urge
Not medication
Not therapy
Just my willpower

For the tantrum follows rage
Rage for lack of language
Rage for the inability to talk

Talking makes one social
Talking makes one happy
Talking makes one refreshed
Talking makes one treasured