Many of you will know that I was diagnosed with autism at age six and I spoke a few weeks ago about how I felt God was calling me to use my experience of that to make a change. I’m lucky to have excellent support from my family, my school and the best church in Derby!

I want to do something to raise money for people who aren’t as lucky as I to have that sort of support. So from the 13th of July for a month I’ll be walking 80k for the National Autism Society who do courses for parents and support groups for people.

I’ll find this hard because I get anxious outside a lot, and tense up really easily. So that then I don’t have a lot of stamina but I want to support others and feel that, that is what God is calling me to do, using my experiences for good. It will also be good for my own personal development to do this.

Someone will send around the Just Giving link to the app at some point and my mum will also be posting it on Facebook. Any donations, sharing the link around and prayer will be really appreciated, so thank you!

Tim adds:
I just want to add that churches are a really social thing, ok? Actually, if you are autistic, then actually some situations in church life can be quite daunting, overwhelming and so actually it’s no small thing to be able to say, I get wonderful support from my church family. It’s actually a really, really cool thing and so well done Matthew for sharing this and there will be many of us I’m sure who want to support you in it!

To support Matthew now visit his JustGiving page here.

Watch Matthew as he shares some of his story here: