WHEN Anna Taylor's son Daniel was first diagnosed with autism 17 years ago, it was a little-known condition that only affected one in 10,000 children.

Now it affects one in 100 and Anna has dedicated her life to supporting other families since helping to set up The Main Project, attached to Beverley School in Middlesbrough.

The signs that Daniel was autistic were there from an early age. "He was hyperactive, like a whirlwind, and he would only eat the same things," says Anna, 44. "If you put on Thomas the Tank Engine or opened a biscuit tin, he'd be right there. But if you talked to him, he wouldn't
acknowledge you."

As he wasn't speaking, the professionals insisted Daniel had a hearing problem and gave him grommets, which made no difference to his b e h a v i o u r.
And because her first son James, now 21, was born with Hemimegalencephaly with Proteus Syndrome, a rare genetic condition shared by the elephant man John Merrick, Anna was initially dismissed as an over-anxious mum.

"Because James had been diagnosed, all the professionals thought I was spending way too much time with James
and not nearly enough time with Daniel, so that was why his language wasn't developing," says Anna.

"They were trying to put it down to bad parenting, but I knew I was a good parent."

At nursery Daniel was hitting other children, and one staff member suggested he could have autism. "I'd seen a programme about autism and the penny dropped," says Anna.
Anna contacted the National Autistic Society, but still the specialists insisted it was too early for a diagnosis.
"I was absolutely furious," says Anna. "I stormed in with a long list of everything I'd noticed and said if it's not autism, what is it?"

Aged two he was finally diagnosed, but didn't start talking till five and wasn't toilet-trained till seven.

Many of Daniel's behavioural problems stemmed from his sensory difficulties. "He has a hyper sensitivity to smell and noise, and went through a stage of continually breaking glass," says Anna.

"He would take the lightbulbs out and smash them because he liked the sound."

At school Daniel avoided the toilet because the cubicles weren't like his bathroom at home. And he would only eat beans at primary school and cucumber at his next school, because he associated certain foods with certain places.

"Major changes in his life - like a house move - he can cope with no problem, but small ones he can't," explains Anna, thinking of their recent move to Ingleby Barwick after being flooded out of the family home in Redcar.
Although divorced from her first husband, Anna found happiness again with husband Phil, 34, who also works with autistic children. They went on to have two more children, Olivia, six, and William, three. "He loves kids so much," she says. "He was dying to have his own family."
Now the family are celebrating Daniel being offered a place at an autism specialist college to learn life skills and computing.

"I used to think they'll never get him toilet trained, he'll never talk, and he'll never calm down," says Anna.

"But when you see Daniel now he's a lovely, amazing young man. He loves visual humour like Mr Bean and is a talented artist. He does more than 100 drawings and cartoons a night and they're amazing."

Daniel's autism hasn't stopped the family enjoying holidays either. On a recent trip to Spain Daniel spent every evening in the middle of the pool, photographing the water splashing at the corners. "He was loving it," says Anna.

Emotionally, Anna says Daniel tunes in and out, sometimes showing "moments of normality where he's interested
in the world".

She says: "Sometimes it appears that he's so in tune with
everybody else.
"There was one time on holiday when he went round every table and spoke to everyone.
But at other times he's so detached."
As Phil works parttime, Anna can work full-time at The Main Project, an organisation she is passionate about.

"I was working as a teaching assistant and lots of parents would come to me for advice and support," says Anna of its formation in 2002.

With help from the Local Authority and National Autistic Society, they secured funding for a year-long project and Anna was appointed project officer.

"I remember some harrowing accounts of parents whose child would come home from school and spend all night in their room, every weekend and every holiday. The parents just wanted them to have a friend."

As a result Anna set up social gatherings.
"What I was doing was unheard of," she says.
"Social gatherings for people who don't want to be with each other socially. But a lot were in mainstream schools and didn't know anyone else with autism. If we could get them together, they would see there are people like themselves and realise it's not an awful thing to have autism."

Now Anna is launching social groups for adults with autism and has created three social enterprises - a catering company, training company and online book company - to provide employment for people with autism. Like many parents of children with special needs, Anna
does worry about Daniel's future, but she's adamant he'll be able to live independently one day.

"He could live on his own, as long as someone came in to clean, make sure he got washed and made sure he had some sort of social contact,"she says. "If none of those social rules were there, he'd be quite happy not being part of the world."

For further information, contact The Main Project on 01642 277450, email anna@themainproject.co.uk.

Click here to view story.