Ryan is a fit and healthy 3 year old boy. He lives with his parents Andy and Rachel in a small village just outside of Stafford.

When Ryan was younger Rachel noticed that Ryan’s behaviour in certain situations caused her some concern, symptoms she now understands to be part of Ryan’s autism.

In January 2007 (when Ryan was 2 ½ years old) Ryan was diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a lifelong condition that affects how Ryan will communicate and relate to other people. It also affects how he will make sense of the world around him.

However, Ryan is very bright and intelligent, he can recite the alphabet, count and knows all his colours. This you will admit is no mean feat for a 3 year old!

The problem that Rachel and Andy are facing with Ryan’s future is that even though Ryan has being diagnosed with ‘ASD, it is once Ryan becomes school age he will be expected to attend a full time mainstream school, which sadly will not give him the support he will so really need.

Rachel has researched many schools for Ryan and having exhausted all her searches there is really only one school where both Ryan settled in immediately and Rachel felt comfortable in the fact that they can offer Ryan what he needs in both time and specialist education. This was the Horizon School in Blithbury, just outside of Rugeley in Staffordshire.

Horizon School now being the school of choice for Rachel, is ideally suited for Ryan, it is a school that provides specialist education and care for children of school age (4 to 19 years) with Autism.

The good news is that Ryan has been assessed and following that assessment was accepted into the school.

Rachel comments "Having met with Ryan and assessed his needs they can put into place an individual educational plan which will teach the national curriculum along with the skills needed to cope with and hopefully overcome the day to day pressures and anxieties which he faces, therefore helping him to lead a life as normally as possible."

Sadly the state will not fund Ryan’s school fees for him to attend this school. There is a chance later on in his school life that they may partly fund it or perhaps even offer 100% funding.

The cost of such a school is around £70,000 (seventy thousand pounds) per year. As you will agree this is a huge some of money for a family to find and this is the reason for which Rachel's Wish has been created.

Rachel's Wish is a fund to raise monies to achieve the goal of Ryan attending Horizon School.

Both Rachel and Andy along with the many friends that they have made, are fundraising with raffles, sponsored bicycle rides, sponsored car washes and even donations from companies with money that would have been spent on Christmas gifts for their customers.

Such is the variety of both people involved and their ideas, with one goal….. To raise money for Ryan.

When speaking with Rachel there is one thing that becomes apparent and that is the bond between Rachel and Ryan. You can’t put it into words, it just makes you feel good, and it is that love that will help maintain the momentum needed to raise such a large amount. Ryan is the apple of Rachel’s eye.

Remember that donating to Rachel’s Wish, however large or small the donation, it is a very worthwhile cause and every single penny goes to the Rachels Wish fund. Both the design of this site and the maintaining of it is a fully paid gift, so none of the money raised will be used on anything apart from getting Ryan into that school he so needs.

"There is still a very long way to go and sometimes the large sums we need to raise just seems too far away" said rachel "but when I feel that I have been knocked back I just look at Ryan and the fight comes back and then I can carry on" continues Rachel.

"he is such a loving little boy, he is so special" she concludes...

If you have any questions that you may like to ask Rachel please follow this link.

If you have any concerns about a member of your family that you may feel suffers from a form of Autism then follow the link on the links page to the National Autism Society. There you will also find a link to the Horizon School.

We thank you for your time reading this brief insight into Ryan’s life and the reason behind Rachel’s Wish and it’s website. We thank you for any comments you would like to make about it and hope it may have been of help to you or someone you know.

If you would like to donate then you can send a cheque or postal order made payable to Rachels Wish to the address on the contact page or click on the donate button (which will take you to a secure site).