A GROUP of parents donned onesies to raise money and support National Autism Awareness Week.

Members of the Swindon Autism/ADHD Facebook group went collecting at the Orbital Shopping Park yesterday, joining forces with the National Autistic Society’s local branch, with the money going to the national charity’s work.

Onesie outfits included Wally, from Where’s Wally?, Pikachu from Pokemon, and a snowman, among others.

One of the event’s organisers was Linda Akehurst, 36, who took part in the event with son Mitchell, 11.

Linda’s two other sons, Casey, 14 and five-year-old Jamie both have autism and the condition affects their lives on a daily basis, with Mitchell helping support his family by acting as a carer for his brothers.

Linda, of Park North, said: “The collection went brilliantly and we are really pleased by the backing that we received, with lots of people donating. It was great to be there side by side with our local branch.”

The money from the collection is still being counted.

Linda helped set up the Facebook support group, which now has more than 600 members, and provides advice to family and friends of those with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

She said she was delighted with how the group had developed

“It is an amazing group and we are all there for each other,” she said.

“We meet up and have coffee, lunch or meet for breakfast in the morning. We’ll also have barbecues where our kids can get to know one another.”

Linda, who gave up work to care for her autistic sons, said she also relies upon the help of Mitchell.

She said: “He’s an angel and he helps me out a lot.

“He’s so good with his two brothers. It does frustrate him sometimes but he has a great deal of patience.”

Casey attends a specialist unit at Commonweal School, while Jamie is at the Chalet School, in Liden, with the support they receive vital to their development, said Linda.

“It’s helped them both a lot, my kids are lucky in that they are in a school which can provide specialist services for them, not every kid is so lucky,” she said.

“More important than raising money is raising awareness. People sometimes don’t understand how difficult the world can be for people with autism - we want to change that.”

Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how sufferers communicate and relate to other people. It also affects how sufferers make sense of the world around them

An estimated 700,000 people in the UK are on the autistic spectrum, with the National Autistic Society providing information, support and services for people with autism.

For more information visit www.twitter.com/SwindonAsdADHD or www.autism.org.