Wolverhampton dad raises more than £2,000 for charity after walking 51 laps around West Park

“I started at 4 o’clock in the morning, I’m doing 51 laps. Raising awareness for autism, alongside that I’m raising money for The Way in Wolverhampton, they do phenomenal work with kids, they really do. Not just special needs or autistic, but generally, they do a lot of work for the local community,” Gummy told the Express & Star as we joined him on his fundraising walk on Thursday (April 2).

The father of two hopes to raise awareness for those with neurological conditions and to raise money for Wolverhampton-based charity The Way Youth Zone to fund sensory equipment for SEND sessions.

For Gummy, the walk was important as he aimed to raise money for an issue that is close to his heart.

He himself has ADHD and his eight-year old son Kian has autism, for him that means he is largely non-verbal as he is able to say “words” but “not full sentences”.

Gummy set an initial target of £500, but surpassed the expectation and was on £2,430 by Friday morning.

Gummy hopes that people can celebrate their differences. He said: “That’s the thing, treat ADHD as your superpower.

“I can do 10 different things at once, but I can’t focus on one.”

He was overwhelmed by the amount of people that turned up.

“From four o’clock in the morning, until about nine o’clock at night - there was only 20 minutes where I was on my own,” Gummy said.

In addition to this, Gummy has built an online community called DFRNT, which he hopes can mean extra community support for those who feel that they are “different”.

“There’s so much different information online, so you can get very confused,” he said.

“But when you have natural contact, if you speak to another parent, their son is autistic, or their daughter, you get a lot more knowledge, as opposed to reading so much random stuff. It’s more about community.”

Gummy hopes the new-found community will mean better support and can be a support system to help parents worry less about their children.

He said: “Everybody worries for their kids, but generally being out in schools, kids generally get bullied anyways, let alone being non-verbal. Imagine, a kid not being able to come home to tell you that he’s getting bullied.

“This walk generally is for my son, and for every kid that feels like they are different. Every adult that feels like they are struggling with having an autistic kid.”