This is a story about a boy called Sean. He is 5 years old and has Autism. He is non-verbal and he and his mum and a three legged dog called Bob live on the south coast of Ireland. This is not a story of his fight to learn, nor of his daily struggle with understanding the world. We have had enough of doom and gloom and have decided to laugh.

 A year ago, I came across a website called Surfers Healing. It’s an inspirational story about a couple in the States who took their severely autistic child surfing and found it really helped him. At the same time I came across an article in the Observer called 'About a boy' (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,1960525,00.html) which made me cry, then galvanised me (in mid Feb) to drag my local surf instructor down to the beach (just after a snow shower. He's a good man) and try to teach my 4 year old non-verbal, son to surf. We were both a bit non-plussed where to even start, but we had fun.

            Since then Sean and I have our own wetsuits and spend a lot of happy hours in and around the water. It is not a cure for Autism (if such a thing exists) but it is great therapy. For us both. For a child where today's world causes sensory overload, where the simple act of living and existing is painful and cruel, the gentle sounds of a beach and the simple act of rock climbing, and the sensory feedback from a beach is pure release. A big open space where he can run unhindered, the freedom, the water, releases a joy in my child it is hard to describe, but I think the attached pictures capture it.

            Jon & Alayne Hynes  (www.surfgtown.com )are, as I have said, good people. They would like to run a Surfers camp in Garretstown this summer, for children on the Autism Spectrum. I am ecstatic, I have been looking for a similar camp in Europe but could not find any so have been saving to take Sean to the states. As a single Mum on welfare… I will be saving a long time. But there's even better news. Jon has decided with Alayne and myself to run a camp here in Ireland. We have founded Surf 2 Heal, which is a charitable entity solely dedicated to making this camp happen.

            Preparations for the camp will involve both Jon, Sean and myself travelling to Mexico this May to link up with Surfers healing to allow Sean experience first hand their way of surfing and to enable Jon to work alongside their volunteers and gain the necessary methods involved.

            In order to make this great journey or learning, therapy and fun happen we need financial assistance and volunteers. Can you help in any way? Do you know someone who can? If so, we'd appreciate any assistance you could give. Either by passing this on to the appropriate people, or perhaps advising us on who to talk to. We need get the word out to other families that we are doing this, so we can start to gather interested people.

            Our website is now up and running and we invite you to log on for a look and perhaps you can join in the mission!

  Thank you for your time,

   Kind Regards,

    Nollaig Hayes