Chesterfield schoolboy with Asperger’s releases book of poetry to fundraise for autism charity
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Kenzi Jupp, 13, first realised he had a knack for poetry during World Autism Awareness Week in 2019. His mum, Mandy Pearce, said that he wrote a few verses while he was off school, and the result was enough to reduce his teachers to tears.
“He was off school that week, and wrote a poem so that he had something to take in when he went back. When I read it and saw how good it was, I told him to take it in and show his teacher - she was so pleased with it, it actually made her cry.
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Hide Ad“The headteacher let him read it out in that day’s assembly, and he made a few of the teachers cry, as well as a big round of applause from his friends. That’s where the idea for this came from.”
Despite the pandemic presenting difficulties for Kenzi, he kept going with his poetry, with support from headteacher Ian Cooper at Outwood Academy Hasland Hall.
He even claimed a national prize in a competition organised by Storychest for a poem called ‘Life in Lockdown’.
Amanda said: “I’m incredibly proud of him, because it hasn’t been easy. The past two years have been really hard on him, as it has been for a lot of autistic children.
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Hide Ad“The school have been 100% behind Kenzi with this, and Mr Cooper, the head teacher, has really inspired him.
“Even though it’s been hard, his thoughts are still on how he can make things better for others.”
Now, Kenzi is releasing his own book of poetry to raise money for Derbyshire Autism Services. The charity helped Kenzi by providing him with a family support worker after he was diagnosed with Asperger’s, and Amanda said that they were crucial in building his confidence.
“Their work is really vital. It’s not until you get a diagnosis with your own child that the gravity hits you. It’s a 24 hour thing and there were all sorts of issues that Kenzi was struggling with.
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Hide Ad“Hannah, Kenzi’s support worker, Is autistic herself, so she identified with the same issues Kenzie had. With the best will in the world, unless you have autism, you will never fully understand how it affects every single part of people’s lives.
“It’s quite expensive, but we were lucky to get funding, and that’s why Kenzie is so keen on raising money for them. He knows that without that funding, he wouldn’t have met Hannah- he wants to ensure other children get the support that he had.”
Kenzi’s book is called ‘I’m Just Me’, and has been illustrated by John Sutcliffe. It costs £9.99, and can be purchased by getting in touch with Amanda through Facebook or Twitter.
Kenzi is currently halfway towards his £1000 fundraising target. Several Derbyshire schools have also expressed an interest in buying books to help teach young children about autism.
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Hide AdAmanda said: “Before, we’ve had children get frightened because they thought they could catch autism. With his book, Kenzi wants to catch that audience and spark debates with parents, teachers and children to remove the stigma around autism.”