‘LEGO SAVED MY SON
THE MUM OF TWO OPENS UP ABOUT HER SON’S AUTISM AND THE SHOW
Unlike many contestants on LEGO Masters, mum-oftwo, Jodie’s passion for LEGO developed later in life when her autistic son, Coopa, discovered it.
“He is the one that got me into it in the first place,” she tells New Idea. “His obsession was LEGO and it was the only thing that calmed him down when he got really worked up.
“So, we started collecting LEGO pieces and it went from there. He started to exhibit his displays and that’s when I thought, ‘Well, if he is doing this I should join in too.’”
Jodie admits that when she and her husband, Stephen, were struggling to understand their son’s diagnosis as they hadn’t dealt with something like that before, LEGO was a saviour.
“He used to have a lot of meltdowns or huge anxiety,” she says. “When we would give him LEGO, that’s when he would be calm. It was like it soothed him and it’s what really made him happy.”
Now, Jodie has also developed a deep passion for building LEGO and while she felt guilty leaving Coopa and his younger brother, Harley, behind to go on the show, she knew it was the opportunity of a lifetime.
“I did it for me,” she says. “I don’t do things for me … I thought, ‘How many people get this chance?’ and I knew my kids were OK. I video-called them every single day.”
Going on the show meant so much to Jodie that she took a huge leap of faith and was teamed up with Jennifer, who she only met the day before building began.
“We were paired together for the show, so we actually didn’t know each other at all,” she laughs. “I was hugely nervous about that, but then I thought ‘I am pretty easy to get along with so hopefully it’s OK’ and she was great. She was so down to earth and incredibly funny, so it made everything a lot easier.”
While the first time that Jennifer and Jodie had ever built LEGO together was when they undertook their first challenge, with 15 hours on the clock for the task, Jodie admits that they became fast friends.
“You get to know each other really quickly when you are spending so much time with each other,” she laughs.
“I DID IT FOR ME ... I THOUGHT ‘HOW MANY PEOPLE GET THIS CHANCE’”