My name is Jan Greenman and I have written a book called Life At The Edge about life with my son Luke Dicker, who has ADHD, Aspergers Syndrome and Chronic anxiety as the letters after his name. There is also a film about us on youtube
Luke is a huge character who has struggled to make sense of the world about him since a childhood illness robbed him of many of the sense we take for granted. His behaviour has reflected that struggle and life with him has been a fight to get any kind of help and understanding of his conditions. As Luke is both clever and articulate, he was sent to mainstream school where he stood out like a sore thumb and as a consequence, developed a school phobia, which resulted in him being extremely anxious each and every day to the point of vomiting. As a mum, to force your child to face their worst fear, day in, day out and drag them to school against the threat of action being taken against you is a nightmare existence that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy and is partly the reason I wrote my book, to try and gain understanding of what life is like for a child who, as Luke himself says, ‘the face fits but the behaviour doesn’t’. However it takes courage to expose your family life.
Eventually, aged 15years, Luke was permanently excluded from mainstream school for his autistic behaviour, gaining in the process a police caution, having to give a taped interview to the police and having his DNA taken like a common criminal. He was a great target for bullies who realised that they could goad and torment him into inappropriate behaviour associated with his conditions. It’s a tribute to Luke that he endured it for so long before reacting.
We were finally, after 10years of asking for specialist help, offered a place at Springfields school, a specialist sports college where Luke’s behaviour, limited attention span (like a flea as I say in my book), extreme anxiety and very specific lack of social and communication skills were finally addressed. I used to say that Luke needed a social education in tandem with an academic one if he were in any way to reach his potential and I was right but I didn’t realise just how quickly he could adapt.
In one academic year, Luke gained 2 GCSE’s,( having missed the best part of year 10 due to his anxiety at mainstream) and gained the respect and admiration of both pupils and staff alike for his big personality. In his words he became ‘the best of the worst instead of the worst of the best’ as he felt accepted and understood. Trystan Williams, his headteacher, recognised Luke’s potential as a public speaker and placed huge trust in Luke by taking him to address national teaching conferences where he spoke eloquently about his conditions, even speaking at the same conference as the Prime Minister. This academic year, Luke is attending Springfields 3 days a week voluntarily, where he is taking several further qualifications, is working at M&S for 2 days a week on the till, managing an 8 hour shift serving the public(!) and is also a public speaker for his conditions. He has been filmed by the BBC, addressed the Rotary Club - amongst others and continues to flourish. In March he is a booked speaker at the international ADDISS conference in London with a 30 min slot! Without his placement at Springfields he had no future. Nigel Mansell OBE (Luke’s hero) and our MP James Gray are now friends of his and he is a young man on the brink of an exciting future. As Luke says when he is bravely, and with great humour, explaining himself to an audience, ‘I’m not disabled I’m different’ and he is. It is understanding that difference and working with it that has enabled him to accept himself and he is achieving beyond my best dreams for him.