Draw inspiration from the Hann family and get your Take a Hike campaign up and running!

Looking for inspiration to help drive your fundraising efforts along? Need that little push to get you out of bed to exercise before work? Below is the story of the Hann family, written by Elliot’s mother Katherine. Elliot is currently a student at our Nathan Centre in Brisbane.

Katherine is a mother, a post graduate university student who is determined to get herself into the best possible fitness level to tackle the challenge of 40km.

Elliot’s story

When Elliot didn’t start speaking like his older brother James had, we grew concerned. After countless visits to the doctor over a two year period of uncertainty, it was almost a relief when he was diagnosed with an underlying Autism Spectrum Disorder in February 2013. He was just over 3½ years old.

That feeling of relief turned to excitement when Elliot was offered a place at AEIOU Foundation at the Nathan Centre. Elliot had recently started attending a mainstream kindy one day a week and spending a lot of time with speech pathologists, but finally he was to be spending all day every day with people who understood him, and who knew what needed to be done to help him.

Elliot has made such huge progress since he began at AEIOU. He was toilet trained very quickly; he is developing his speech and is much better behaviourally. He is now singing along with his favourite videos and he loves playing chasing games with his big brother! Elliot is now five and we still have a way to go, but now we have hope for the future.

I do not believe that Elliot would be in the position he is in now were it not for the wonderful people at AEIOU and the programme they have developed.

This is to be my first Take a Hike and I have never walked anything close to this distance before. I don’t imagine it will be easy. But with a very energetic beagle to exercise, I have had no difficulty fitting in at least a daily walk.

My friends understand the challenges faced each day and I know they will support me by donating to AEIOU. The more we fundraise, the more kids we help!

Children with autism face huge challenges in every aspect of their lives. Things that come easily to other children require concerted effort over a long period of time for them to master. Early intervention is vitally important; it is great to be able to participate in an event which raises money to enable this to happen so more children are able to access the life-changing program at AEIOU.