Last year I decided to write a book. I’d wanted to write a book since I was a child, but the time never seemed right, I didn’t know what to write about, and who was I to write a book anyway? But eventually I decided to just do it … and in March 2013 I published The Boy From Hell: Life with a Child with ADHD. It was about the journey my son Daniel and I have been on, from the early toddler tantrums that went beyond anything I’d expected, to his first school exclusion at the age of six; from diagnosis of ADHD and medication with Ritalin to the cold January afternoon when we went to our local police station for Daniel to face assault charges.

I didn’t expect anyone except my mum to buy the book but to my amazement is has sold over 1000 copies and has over 40 five star reviews on Amazon! But the most amazing thing has been everything that’s happened as a result. My business has changed completely – I now focus more on helping other authors self-publish their books – and I realised that I had a passion – my life desire was to use the knowledge and experience I have of parenting a child with ADHD to help other parents and carers. I’ve spoken at conferences around the country, appeared on local and national radio, featured on a Channel Five documentary about ADHD with Olympic gymnast Louis Smith and have had articles published in SEN and Bella magazines. All very exciting!

But I wanted to do more, and so this year I have been training as an NLP Practitioner and Coach. The plan is I want to work with parents of ADHD kids, helping them to overcome barriers, grow their confidence and inspire their kids to reach their full potential. I graduate in September, and in October I am holding an ADHD Inspiration Day in Swindon. it’s a day packed with speakers, workshops, information, advice and the chance for parents and carers to meet other people in similar situations. I want people to go away feeling inspired and confident about helping their kids to achieve amazing things.

The trouble is I know money can be hard to find and my ticket price of £50 was prohibitive to many parents. So I’ve launched a crowdfunding project to raise enough money to fund fifty tickets. So far the project is 38% funded, and there is a very generous donation to be added – somewhere in the region of £700, the result of a fundraising afternoon held by the Highworth (East Swindon) Athena Networking group last week. That will take the total to around 75% funded …. with only a few hundred pounds left to go.

So if you have a pound spare, or a fiver, or any amount at all, you’d be doing the most amazing thing by pledging it to my project. Thank you in advance!