About Us

Meet the team

Christine

If we turn back time to 1985, Christine returned from a 5-year period of working in New York. Newly married and with 2 sons, she has enjoyed living with her family in Church Crookham for 35 years. She is excited to join Autism Friendly Fleet as a volunteer and Trustee. She worked in the financial sector for over 20 years, for the last 7 years Christine has been Project Manager for Hart Foodbank. Christine originally trained to be a singer and has, occasionally, enjoyed being a professional vocalist. Nowadays, she loves her hobbies – Musical Theatre and fitness. These are usually pursuits that are fun, social and help both physical and mental wellbeing. Christine is passionate about helping local people with any challenges. Christine has a nephew who is on the Autistic spectrum and wanted to see how she could help families in the Fleet area. So, it is fitting that she wants to help this local charity. She is looking forward to learning more about autism and to help provide activities for our community.

Mohua

I have lived in Fleet for nearly 15 years. My journey into the world of autism began with the diagnosis of my daughter when she was nearly 3 years old. I have attended many parenting and professional courses on autism. After interacting with various parents with autistic children, both here in Fleet and Glasgow, I came to realise that autism is still a very much unknown, grey area to many people. On this journey I came to realise the difficulties faced by autistic people and their families in day to day life. Being a member of Fleet ASD parent group, I realised that though our town is considered as one of the ‘best places’ to live, it’s still a very challenging town for the autistic community. The creation of Autism Friendly Fleet was born from the idea to make Fleet the first town in the country where autism is understood by all and accepted. A town where our children can grow up feeling loved and cared for. A town where there is no judgement, only acceptance and inclusion.

Samantha

I am married and live in Fleet with my husband and two children. Fleet town is our home, especially as our kids who were born here. My youngest child has autism and since his diagnosis I have been learning as much as can from other parents, professional courses and simply being his mum!  
I feel passionately that autism is something to be talked about, read about, understood and probably most importantly, accepted. It is important to me, on behalf of my son that local people, businesses, restaurants, medical practices and leisure facilities are aware of the issues that the autistic community face. I want everyone understand these issues and then strive to make autistic people feel welcome and included. That’s why I got involved with Autism Friendly Fleet to promote awareness through our training sessions, and to create inclusion by providing a “chill-zone” which enables families to attend busy events that otherwise might be impossible.
In my spare time I enjoy walking and cycling in the local area. I also teach hula-hooping locally and enjoy watching my daughter compete in taekwon-do competitions.

Vanessa

I have worked in Fleet for over 20 years and lived here for over 10 years. My son was diagnosed with autism when he was 4 and my journey to discover all that I could about it began. I started attending parenting courses and any other courses that I could find, anything to help me to support my son. My new found knowledge and experience helped me become the Network Co-ordinator for Hampshire Autism Voice and the Autism Ambassador Scheme. I co-founded Autism Friendly Fleet as I feel that too often autistic individuals face barriers to accessing local services and amenities that can easily be removed if local businesses and organisations are made aware of and understand autism better. It’s a win-win for business and customer!