A mum who feared her son would never talk has shared his dramatic improvement since being diagnosed with autism.
Noah Roberts, who was none verbal, wasn't diagnosed with autism until he was six years old. His mum Louise said she had to 'fight' to get the correct diagnosis from doctors.
After persisting and getting Noah, who is now nine, the correct diagnosis, Louise said she 'can't believe how far he has come'. She said when Noah was younger he could not even look another person in the eye.
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Louise who is from Netherton said: "No parent wants their child to have a diagnosis but once he got it that opened doors for me to get him the help he needs in school. To have something in place."
Louise said Noah's social skills have improved dramatically since he moved primary schools and this year he has started a charity campaign to raise money for cancer. She said: "For such a young child he just gets such a lot of self-worth from helping other people.
"He was watching TV [show] on cancer and he was like 'I want to raise money. I said okay 'what about £100' and he said 'no I want to raise £1,000'. He has been walking dogs, we have a toy sale and we are having a cake sale this Sunday. He was walking dogs every day after school for two weeks."
Noah and his mum set up a stall outside their house to sell toys to passers by. Louise, 40, said: "Now to see Noah actually talk and not only talk but to come up with these ideas and interreact with the general public literally blows me away.
"If you would have said to me five years ago he would have been doing something like this I would have said 'no not at all'. I was outside with him when he was doing the toy sale but he was the one talking to people."
Louise also said she was overwhelmed by the support the Netherton community has shown towards Noah and he has now raised £600 of his target. He will now be doing the Race for Life at Aintree Racecourse to hopefully raise £1,000.
Louise said: "To see where he is now I never thought he would get there."
You can find Noah's GoFundMe page here.
