‘We can’t thank people enough for incredible offers’ – father
A FAMILY said they were overwhelmed at the response to a plea for help with a washing machine to help their autistic son.
Marc Leadbeater’s son, Spencer, 22, is on the autistic spectrum. When he feels anxious or stressed he will watch a particular washing machine which has a calming influence on him.
Just before Christmas the washing machine, which is 15 to 20 years old, broke down and an engineer deemed it beyond repair. Spencer has three other washing machines in his room that are not plumbed in. Mr Leadbeater, a States deputy, spent Christmas Eve trying to get each one going but none of them had the same sensory effect on his son.
When he placed an advert in the Guernsey Press and people shared it on Facebook, offers of help came flooding in.
One post had in excess of 30,000 shares across Guernsey and the UK.
‘I was getting so many calls that I couldn’t get text messages and I was only able to answer about 25% of them,’ said Deputy Leadbeater.
Those who made contact included women from the United States and Australia who had autistic children of their own.
‘We found washing machines that were almost the same but finding an identical one was impossible,’ said Deputy Leadbeater.
An appliance engineer from London, who is also on the autistic spectrum, offered to build a custom replica machine and get it sent to Guernsey.
‘A lady from Guernsey offered to meet us at Guernsey Electricity where she said she would buy a new washing machine for Spencer. I’m just lost for words at all the kind offers we had for help and it’s just incredible. We can’t thank people enough.’
Engineer Ian Champion from Champion and Son eventually came to Spencer’s rescue. He helped field offers of help from the public and took the machine to his workshop for inspection. The problem was traced to a broken circuit board.
EMW Electrics sent a replacement to the island free of charge for Mr Champion to fit.
‘I just needed to put the circuit board in and test it, it only took about an hour to fix, but before that there was a lot of research and contacting manufacturers,’ said Mr Champion.
‘It’s just one of those things, it’s very old and we were lucky to find a board. I obviously fix things every day but this was very rewarding.
‘Spencer was really happy and when he walked in he wanted to meet me and give me a handshake and a hug, he was so excited, and the next thing was he had it turned on and watched it go round.’
