AS North West was set up late in 2022 with the aim of bringing neurodivergent people in the North West together for socialising and peer support opportunities.  It was set up in conjunction with other neurodivergent people, all of whom contributed to several surveys about what they'd like to do and how they'd like it to work.

I devoted all my spare time, my precious (and often rare) energy and my own money into making the group a success.  There was  no outside financial support at all.  I undertook interactions with other people in my efforts to spread the word and make it a success and that is the most difficult thing in the world for me to do.

Just when it seemed everything was starting to go really well and the group meetings had begun, I became very unwell both physically and mentally and without anybody else to run the group, it had to fold.

When glimmers of recovery were on the horizon I thought long and hard about whether I could reactivate the group and carry it on.  I wanted to do this so much for our community as there is precious little out there that is ND led but two things led me to come to the realisation that it would be bad for me personally (after the previous year of awfulness);

1.

I am not naturally somebody who interacts easily with other people.  I find it exceptionally difficult and it always leads me to hate on myself, overthink and just want to hide away.  These types of reaction in turn lead to difficulties with my wellbeing and then things start to go wrong physically again and I just can't keep going through this cycle as it is becoming harder and harder to pull out of it the more it continues to happen.  Through my experience in curating and running the group, I have learned something about myself - learned that whilst I would be happy to attend a local group like mine was, I don't have the capacity or ability to run it and be the 'go to' person for other people.

2.

When the group was in it's infancy, I was in contact with so many organisations locally to both try and promote awareness and acceptance  of the neurodivergent community and to ensure that the views of everyone in the group were represented and heard.  This includes people who came to the meetings and people who were just members of the Facebook Group.  Organisations like; Clinical Partners, Lancashire Autism Partnership Board, Leyland Festival Committee and others.  Each organisation I worked with expressed interest and promised to keep in contact about feedback they could use from the group to improve outcomes for neurodivergent people in the area.  However, I would find out - after the fact - that decisions had been made without any input from me and in some cases, after lengthy (and exhausting for me) dialogue had taken place, I was ghosted and ideas I'd imparted had been partly taken, adapated so that ND people WEREN'T represented and passed off as "look what we've done to help!"  I'm not somebody who just lets things go but after countless messages asking why and equal numbers of non-responses, I just couldn't carry on pushing any more.  I offered my services in design and marketing (and the accompanying professional graphics packages I used) and was ignored in preference to Word document templates.  I was never asked for any assistance, despite offering it numerous times when people had said 'Ah, wouldn't it be good if we could create x' y or z'.  It was only later on I would find out that rather than accept the services of somebody who is offering their time for free, some of these organisations prefer to PAY others simply so that they can use up funds in a budget for stuff like this when those funds should be used to support neurodivergent people!

Needless to say - for all the above organisations - your books are marked!  It'll no doubt mean nothing to you as you have your own agendas that are not fully ND led but you'll probably be pleased to hear that I don't have the capacity, energy or desire to engage with your so-called 'services' any more so you've successfully got one disabled person off your backs now.

From September 2025, this page will disappear and be replaced with a link to the Facebook group which will be launched as a Facebook only, online support group.  This group will share relevant information from the North West and people will be able to post about other services that people may find of interest.  This will take less of my time and therefore be more able to be upkept.

Finally, I would like to thank ALL the wonderful people who supported the in-person group in South Ribble whilst it was running.  You were all amazing and it is yourselves who I feel most awful about in having to take the decision to close the group.  I wish nothing but the best for all of you.