The first steps on the road to my diagnosis were taken on this day. I was on holiday in Bridlington. At around 12.30pm I started to feel hungry so I looked for a fish and chip shop and found one after a few minutes near the library. I bought some fish and chips and a can of coca-cola and sat down to eat my meal at a wooden table outside the shop. I could only sit by myself at a table by the far right.
As I was eating, I was sat facing a group of children who I noticed within seconds, some of who were rocking repetitively, making strange noises and squealing loudly, a few tables away from me. I even saw one of them hiding under another wooden table. There were about 10-12 of them. A few adults were present with the children, who I presumed to be carers or minders. I didn't stare or look at them. What they were doing wasn't any of my business, and I continued to keep myself to myself.
I was sat on the nearest table to them though. I was eating my dinner when suddenly this boy, then about 11 years old, walked up to my table, took my can of cola and kept it without saying anything to me. I shouted, "Hey. What are you doing? Give me that back NOW". He couldn't talk and he didn't say a word.
I walked up to their carers and said "I know they may be a bit slow or from a special school or something, but there's no excuse for that".
One of the carers apologised for what had happened and gave me 50p. She told me they were all from a home for Autistic children and were out on a day trip to the seaside. She tried to explain that the boy couldn't help his actions because he was Autistic.
Before this happened I had never met anyone with Autism in my life. Why he picked me out or my can of cola I don't know. I think I was sat on the nearest table to them and he really wanted to keep the can rather than the drink itself. Perhaps he had an obsession with tin cans. It wouldn't surprise me if that were the case.
In late September/early October 1994, I first ever heard the term 'Asperger's Syndrome' mentioned. I remember that I was laid on my bed tuning my newly bought Walkman into various radio stations and purely by chance I came across a radio programme about Autism. I heard the word 'Autism'. I decided to listen to what they were saying because of my encounter a few weeks before. After about ten minutes someone on the programme mentioned Asperger's Syndrome. The condition was discussed for about five minutes. I remember someone saying that "It is a condition that has Autistic-like behaviour but spoken language is present even though it is in an often robotic form".
As it turned out, 1994 was a pivotal year as it provided me with strong signs of what direction my future life was to take. First of all, on Saturday, 29th January 1994, I met, for the first ever time, the very person who, almost four years later, told me that I had the condition myself. Like myself, he was undiagnosed in late January 1994 and neither of us had heard of AS at that point. I first met a person with Autism in August 1994. I first heard of Asperger's Syndrome in October 1994 and I first heard of the Internet on Monday 21st November 1994 when reading a magazine article describing it.
The TV programme QED on BBC1 showed a programme about Asperger's Syndrome on this late April evening in 1995. If I remember now, years later, the title of the programme was "I'm not stupid". The featured person was called Mark Fleisher and he attended Brunel University.
This was the point where I should have turned around and said, "Yes I have this condition. I must get diagnosed" but again, like five years earlier in 1990, for some reason I failed to spot myself in the character, or maybe I was into some denial deep down, or maybe I thought things would work out for me and I wouldn't need a diagnosis.
The next time 25th April fell on a Tuesday, in the year 2000, I was also very much involved with Asperger's Syndrome, and watching TV programmes about it, but of course, though I could never have foreseen it then, it would be in very different circumstances.
