The smell of frying onions, the boom of the music, the
screams of delighted terror, flashing, spinning lights that colour everything
orange, red and yellow. As soon as you walk in you can feel the thrill.
An amazing charity called The Lions books an entire fun fair
for two hours every year so that children with disabilities can have free
run. No looks of ridicule, no tuts from
the ignorant, two hours of freedom from judgement. I hadn’t been for a few years as the last
time we tried my young man found it a little too much, he was too full of
anxiety and sensory overload and stayed glued to me. This year I’d arranged to meet some other
families so despite the rain we had to go.
This time it was the thrill not the fear that he felt. He sat in his bumper car and waited patiently
for the others to fill up. I heard my
young man’s name being called and then in jumped a friend of his from Youth
Club who had sight problems saying “you can be my driver, lets drive like
GT8”. And they did, singing football
songs along the way. Then my young man
got off and asked “can I go with my friends?” before I could say yes he ran off
after them towards the Waltzer. I stood at the side of the rides with a grin
on my face and jigged along to Sister Sledge. He downright refused to go on the Twister with
me and only spoke to me when he wanted money for some sweets.
This felt strange, this felt normal, this felt like
relief. I never dreamed I would see this
day. You can do great big things in this
world, you can strive to change great big things. This small charity does one amazing small
thing that means the biggest thing in the world to me and my son. Join
in. Do your little bit in this world where you are. Aint that right Mr Tutu :)
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