One of our members shared this story about her son's employment journey
She tells us, "25 years ago my second Fragile X son Richard, had left school and completed a course for young adults with learning disabilities. Richard was hoping to get a straight forward job. We submitted several application forms, and received not one reply.
As we have a motorway services near to our home, we began to search there. My husband and I debated whether we should mention Richards disability, my husband saying "just do it". I felt that this may not be helpful, but we posted the form and to our astonishment another form arrived. Richard was invited for an interview. We could barely believe it. I drove Richard to the appointment, and waited. A very nice gentleman appeared about 45minutes later with Richard and suggested that we have a cup of tea before we left. I thought, "that's it, they don't want Richard, and they are giving us a cup of tea to make us feel better".
Richard was offered a job. He finished his induction course, it wasn't all plain sailing, but with a lot of encouragement, he finally was allowed to take on a full time post. Several years later we learned that the two people who had interviewed and trained Richard had Fragile X in the family. At the end of 2021 we went to a promise auction in aid of Fragile X, and finally met the lady who had interviewed Richard and employed him.
At last, with tears flowing, and hugs of gratitude, we were able to say "Thank you".
If you have any stories that you'd like to share, we'd love to hear them! Please get in touch on info@fragilex.org.uk.