I live with my partner of 11 years and our two sons aged eight and four. I have worked within the insurance industry for the past 11 years and thoroughly enjoy my job and the people I work with. I contacted the Charity in Spring 2023 after some advice from my line manager at the time. 

We had our second son in 2020 and despite Covid restrictions I had a healthy pregnancy with a relatively straightforward delivery via c-section. When our youngest child reached 18 months, I started to become aware that he was not developing at a similar rate to our eldest child and contacted the health visitor about my concerns. 

He had several assessments carried out at home through a range of play-based activities. They identified some concerns about his hearing and further tests revealed he had glue ear. I was so relieved after receiving this news, as I knew that this was temporary and could be fixed. His glue ear had cleared before receiving grommets and I was advised that now he could hear, his speech would come on and his development would soar. 

Unfortunately, this was not the case, and I had a ‘mum’s gut feeling’ that something else wasn’t right. I would Google most nights why my child was not developing. He couldn’t speak, understand what we were saying, and smaller things such as not being able to wave and would often cry.

We were referred to communication cafés, paediatricians, speech and language and our local specialist educational services but there were long waits to access any of these due to Covid backlogs. We therefore sought private treatment through a Speech and Language Therapist. We needed to help our son and couldn’t wait for up to two years to start to receive any help. 

They identified they also believed he was Autistic for several reasons including his developmental delays, no speech or understanding and his sensory seeking behaviours such as flapping, spinning, and repetitive vocalisations. We were told he would require weekly therapy sessions. This was extremely expensive, and I hadn’t been able to increase my hours at work due to the level of support my son still required. This resulted in me adding the therapy and other expenses on to credit cards. Although I could still make minimum payments each month, and was not in debt, I was concerned as we knew this was long-term situation.

Our son was referred onto the pathway for Autism, and we received a full diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder in January 2025. We have been advised that children who show signs as early as our son did are more likely to be profoundly impacted, and that he may have a learning disability in addition to the Autism. However, this won’t be able to be diagnosed until he older. Whilst he is still unable to speak and remains severely delayed in all developmental areas, he is an incredibly happy and healthy little boy and taught us as a family how to navigate this world in a slightly different way! 

My solution to meeting the additional expenses was only ever a short-term answer. We had never been in this scenario before or ever needed to ask for any assistance so once establishing that this was long term I realised I needed support, although I wasn’t sure at that point what we needed.

We did feel a huge sense of shame in contacting the Charity. We have both always worked hard and been able to support ourselves and our family, and give back to our local community, so to suddenly be in the position we were in felt awful. However, the response after finally building up the courage to get in touch was so comforting and massively changed the way we were feeling at the time. 

The Charity has supported us in ways we honestly never imagined. We were asked to provide our wage slips and bank statements to confirm our outgoings initially, and after assessment by the Charity they reached out with a support package. 

This included getting our finances into a better place and paying for ongoing treatment for our son until the end of the year. The Charity also paid a monthly contribution to our living expenses as it recognised that me remaining part-time to care for or son had had a huge impact on our finances. In addition to this they also funded an iPad and the assistive technology to go on it for our son that was recommended by the Speech and Language Therapist as an alternative way for him to communicate. They have also sent us a wonderful Christmas hamper with things in for all of us as a family which was a wonderful surprise. 

Our situation has hugely improved since contacting the Charity. Our son is attending nursery three days a week and thriving. He can use his iPad to communicate some very basic needs and engage in learning with staff. This has allowed me to now increase my hours at work, and I am now about to start a new role, both of which will help our financial situation. Our son continues to attend regular speech and language therapy which we continue to fund and thankfully don’t need a credit card to do so. 

Without the support from The Insurance Charity our family would not be in the position it is in now quite simply. We will be forever grateful. 

For anyone thinking of contacting the Charity, whilst you may be feeling like we did, I urge you to just reach out. You are not judged at all, and any information provided is confidential and not shared with your employer. For us we could not believe the support that was offered, it was such a huge weight that was lifted instantly.

*Name changed and stock imagery used for confidentiality.