Hustle for autism night

Despite having lots of work on, a 6.15 am flight, and no bags packed, I still made the Hustle for autism last night, and pleased I did so.

I finally got to meet Che Tibby who I once referred to (through ignorance) in the feminine. As he is around twice as tall as me, I won’t make that mistake again 🙂

Had a good conversation with Catalyst’s Don Christie re open source software and Government. Lots of work to be done there.

The highlight of the evening was the speeches. God they were moving. But I’ll come to them last.

The auctions went well and I suspect the total got close to or over five figures. The morning tea with John Key went for $1,500 and I got outbid for the dinner with Marian Hobbs which went for $1,600. The Helen Clark signed wine (many jokes about authenticity of the signature) went for $300.

During the evening chatted to an acquaintance who has autistic children. He left me with no uncertainty about the inadequacy of the support for these kids. The parents who are relatively well off can cope with great dedication, but for others it is beyond tough.  The SST reports how the Cohens spent $120,000 over three years on therapy and that a US study estimates the lifetime societal cost to be NZ$4 million or so.

Both Russell Brown and David Cohen gave great speeches, and Nicola Legat referred to how this issue had brought detente to the former Brown-Cohen cold war 🙂

For me the speech that touched me the most was that from Bill English. Bill wasn’t there as a politician (even though he did introduce himself as the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party which got some good laughs) but as an old schoolfriend of David Cohen’s.

Bill had obviously read the book “A perfect world” by Cohen in great detail and talked about the passages that most moved him.  He said that after reading the book he probably agrees that hope, even more than love, is the most important emotion.   The speech was quite simply stunning in its empathy and message.

Bill also spoke about the meeting David C when he was 13 and how the irrepressible Cohen left a lasting impact with his defiance towards authority.  This was shown by David going through eight schools in the next two years.  He hasn’t lost that wonderful anti-establishment streak

Russell’s new autism website called humans.org.nz is now up and running and will I am sure be a great resource to those many many families out there with autistic children.

I went along mainly because I knew Russell amd David and wanted to support them both, and also for an enjoyable social function.  I left though with a new understanding about the incredible challenges families with autistic children have, and how we need to do more as a society to help.