Sue Stockdale talks to Sophie Dow, a former freelance correspondent, writer, and founder of the Salvesen Mindroom Centre about what happened when she went on a search to discover a diagnosis for her daughter Annie, who had learning difficulties, and how it led to her to starting up a charity.

Salvesen Mindroom Centre is a leading Scottish charity helping and supporting children and young people and their families who are neuro divergent, previously referred to as having learning difficulties. The charity has 22 employees and have helped thousands of children and families since its’ inception.

Sophie’s book 'When life doesn’t follow the script', about life with her daughter Annie, the setting up of Salveson Mindroom centre and neurodiversity was published in her native Sweden in 2018 and has received five-star reviews.

Find out more about Salveson Mindroom at https://www.mindroom.org
It Takes All Kinds of Minds 2023 conference information https://itakom.org
Sophie Dow website https://www.sophie-dow.com

This series is kindly supported by Squadcast –the remote recording platform which empowers podcasters by capturing high-quality audio and video conversations. Find out more at squadcast.fm

Key Quotes

‘We didn't have any guidance or directions or anything. So thanks to being a journalist, I just set about doing research.’

‘There were 2,700 delegates, professors and teachers and head teachers and speech therapists at the conference. Anyone needed to support and help a child that's struggling.’

‘I realised this is a public health issue that hasn't been addressed. It's still a public health issue today in 2022.’

‘Every single person that's born has the right to a dignified life.’

‘ I don't have some £70,000, but I have a vision.’

‘We are all only human beings.’

’25 genes out of the 22,000 or so that we all need in order to have a good chance at life were missing. And those 25 genes are the cause of Annie's mental handicap.’

‘The big challenge of the 21st century is to try and understand more about how the brain and the mind works.’

Read the transcription for this episode on www.accesstoinspiration.org and connect with us:
Twitter www.twitter.com/accessinspirat1
Facebook www.facebook.com/accesstoinspiration
Instagram www.instagram.com/accesstoinspiration
LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/access-to-inspiration/
Sign up for our newsletter http://eepurl.com/hguX2b
Read our Impact Report https://bit.ly/3hElalv

Sound Editor: Matias de Ezcurra (he/him)
Producer: Sue Stockdale (she/her)