Wear a onesie or bake cake

There’s lots of ways you can help autism charity

West Lothian people are being urged to back a fundraising event this spring.

The National Autistic Society Scotland is calling on local people to back their biggest fundraiser, World Autism Awareness Week which runs from March 26 to April 2.

In the seven days leading up to World Autism Awareness Day ( April 2), the charity wants to encourage schools, workplaces and individuals in West Lothian to take part in activities to raise money and autism awareness.

Whether it’s taking part in a bake sale, sponsored walk or wearing a onesie, there are plenty of ways in which West Lothian residents can get involved at home, school or work. Free fundraising guides, packed full of great ideas on how to raise money so the charity can continue their life-changing work can be downloaded from www. autism. org. uk/ waaw.

The charity needs the public’s support to raise vital funds to continue running campaigns like Too Much Information, training and sharing knowledge with professionals working with autistic people, and so much more.

Jenny Paterson, director of the National Autistic Society Scotland, said: “Around 58,000 people in Scotland are autistic and although we’ve come a long way in raising awareness, there’s still more to be done until everyone understands autism.

“Our research found that although 99.5 per cent of people in Scotland have heard of autism, just 16 per cent of autistic people think it is understood in a meaningful way. We want to increase understanding of the condition – which affects one in 100 people – in order to tackle this issue and build more compassionate communities.

“This World Autism Awareness Week, I hope that people living in West Lothian will get involved and help us to raise vital funds so we can continue to make a difference to autistic people in Scotland.”

There are many ways for West Lothian residents to get involved and help raise funds for the charity.

These include, Onesie Wednesday: Get out your onesie! Join in on March 28 for Onesie Wednesday by wearing your favourite onesie to spread joy and laughter while raising funds for autism and 7k for 700K where participants can run, walk, cycle or swim 7k to raise money for the 700,000 autistic people in the UK.

More information can be found at www.autism. org.uk/WAAW.