Domestic Gardens


As resurfacing jobs go, it wasn’t one of Technical Surfaces’ largest ever contracts. Yet its ability to change one little boy’s life was right up there. Alice Northrop visits a garden in Castle Bromwich, Birmingham to find out more about this heartwarming project


W


hen I was first told by Pitchcare’s Operations Director, John Richards, about this story, I struggled to decipher who was doing


what, and how everybody fitted together. Punjabi Wolves, Promise Dreams, Technical Surfaces, the Jaggers, I wondered where on earth to start, and who started it all. It has turned out to be a fantastically warming process however, and yes, it has restored my faith in humanity just a tad. In fact, it may even have sparked my interest in artificial turf, but don’t tell anyone … It starts with Mason Jagger, an eight-year-


old boy with severe autism and Global Developmental Delay. Mason has strong sensory needs which often results in him


feeling frustrated and displaying challenging behaviour as he seeks sensory satisfaction. Mason’s mum Claire talked to me about the challenges that she and her husband Jason face with Mason: “If he just had severe autism, it would be much more manageable. He’s got autism and he doesn’t speak at all, as well as having learning difficulties and behavioural problems. He can be very unpredictable and he is hard work, bless him.” Although only eight years of age, Mason is wearing size ‘small men’s’ clothing already and Claire worries about how much harder it will get to keep him out of harm’s way. "He is more loving than a ‘normal’ eight-year-old, he gives me the best hugs. But there is that other side where you just don’t know when he’s going to turn.”


PC AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016 I 109


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