Laugh or You'll Cry
My life as a mum with MS and a son with autism
Sue Askins
HarperTrueLife
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
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Hammersmith, London W6 8JB
First published by HarperTrueLife 2015
FIRST EDITION
Text © Sue Askins 2015
Cover photo © Shutterstock 2015
Cover layout © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
Sue Askins asserts the moral right to
be identified as the author of this work
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Ebook Edition © February 2015 ISBN: 9780008100155
Version 2015-01-30
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For Julian, for all your help
Contents
Chapter 1: A few hours of peace – I’ll type something on the computer
Chapter 2: The ‘Artful Couple’
Chapter 3: ‘Guess who’s coming to stay’
Chapter 4: Strange things dawning on me slowly
Chapter 7: Maybe a smaller class will help
Chapter 8: Lack of imagination, social and communication skills? That will be autism then!
Chapter 9: Another school, a special school
Chapter 10: Do your legs hurt? That’ll be MS then!
Chapter 12: Maybe I’ll hassle people and try to get better services for Josh
Chapter 13: Writing a letter might help
Chapter 14: Get off the floor and back in the chair
Chapter 15: Right place at the right time
Chapter 16: Negotiating the Christmas wrapping paper in my new wheelchair
Chapter 17: Trip to York – strapped to the front of a train
Chapter 18: To London, past the scary tree
Chapter 19: Highs and lows and highs
Chapter 20: ‘To the Palace, please’