Encouraging empathy and kindness in public spaces
Come To My Rescue
Inspired by a viral post, our Come To My Rescue campaign raises awareness about supporting parents of children with special needs during public meltdowns.
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About Come To My Rescue
My name is Barbara Ball and I have been in the Special Education Needs & Disabilities sector since 1976. I founded ASEND in 2011 and have been supporting schools in SEND matters ever since.
Recently my son Dan was travelling home on the train when he saw a nearby mother having a hard time with her son. Her young lad was having a major meltdown, and other passengers were tutting and looking disapproving.
Dan spent the rest of the journey engaging with the young lad and his sister. His mother was understandably very grateful. So grateful in fact, that unbeknownst to us, she posted a photo of Dan interacting with her kids on the Facebook group ‘Spotted:London’ asking people to share so she could find and thank him.
The post went viral and within three days has had over 115,000 likes and over 25,000 shares.
The mum, Gayna, wrote that her son has autism and ADHD and about how Dan “calmed my son down and stopped him from having a breakdown. He doesn’t understand how much he truly came to my rescue.”
The Parent's Experience
Since then, Gayna has been in touch with me and explained how incredibly difficult it is to travel on public transport with her son, and how often people shout at her or get her kicked off the vehicle.
I personally know that many of the parents I have worked with have shared Gayna’s experiences and know-how incredibly difficult it is to travel on public transport with their children with Autism and/or ADHD or to be in public places like supermarkets.
As a result of Gayna’s post, many thousands of parents have replied, many with children with Autism, ADHD or other disabilities. All of them have shared similar experiences and celebrated the fact that a stranger had seen fit to come to the rescue.
So, in honour of Gayna and every other parent out there, with children with special needs and disabilities, who have to cope with a child in meltdown, Asend is proud to launch the “Come To My Rescue” campaign.
About the Campaign
The campaign seeks to champion the actions of Dan and others like him who often come to the rescue of parents in need of support.
The campaign seeks to raise awareness among the general public of the desperation that parents often feel when their children with special needs have meltdowns. Many observers would like to help or to show support with the parent but are afraid of interfering. Judging by the response to Gayna’s Facebook post, most parents would be grateful for a smile, a nod or a word of support or even an offer to help in an extreme situation such as Gayna & Dan found themselves in.
Let’s give everybody who sympathises with parents of children in meltdown the chance to come to their rescue.
Let’s stand side-by-side to ensure that parents of children in a meltdown don’t feel isolated, judged and rejected by the rest of us.
Media coverage for Come To My Rescue
The day was saved by a helpful stranger, fellow passenger Dan, who stepped in to become Gayna’s hero
– This Morning, itv
Moment hero stranger steps in to calm down autistic boy suffering episode on train
– Evening Standard
Stranger hailed ‘hero’ after helping Farnborough autistic child on train
– BBC News
Heartwarming moment heroic stranger steps in to calm down autistic boy having meltdown on train
– Mirror
Mum Calls Stranger On Train Her ‘Hero’ After He Calmed Five-Year-Old With ADHD And Autism
– Huffpost
Mum thanks hero who stepped in to calm down her son with autism when he had a meltdown on a train
– Metro
“If I didn’t have Dan that journey would have been a nightmare”
– iNews