Hi, my name is Natalie Dewhurst, I am a mum to 4 boys. I was born and grew up in the South of Manchester where I met my husband. We made the big decision in 2014 to move our family to Northern Ireland.

Special needs has been about of our lives ever since my eldest son was born in 2008. He wasn’t hitting the milestones set, not crawling and walking at the age expected and had a speech delay. We attended a number of appointments including physiotherapy and speech and language therapy. He walked his first steps at 18 months old. He caught up by quite a lot in the first 2 years of primary school. He was diagnosed with Autism before he turned 13.

My second son was very different in the way he hit all his physical milestones up to 18 months old and then it seemed he stopped. Again, he started on the road of appointments, when we moved we took him out of the system of appointments in Manchester and into the system of appointments in Northern Ireland.

It’s been and still is a long road. He started in mainstream education and then after being assessed by an educational physiologist, we made the decision to move him to a learning support unit. Since then he was diagnosed with Autism, moderate learning difficulties, speech and language delay to mention a couple of things, the list goes on. He now attends a asd and mld school.

My third son also has learning difficulties and a severe speech delay to name a few things and is currently in a main stream school where he needs extra support. He has a full time classroom assistant and was diagnosed with Autism.

My fourth and youngest son is a toddler. There is an age gap with him and is brothers so it’s like starting again. He had a tongue tie as a baby and it was snipped as a baby to helphis feeding. He is now on waiting lists for some services including Autism services and being seen by some services already. I'm lucky to have the experience I have with his brothers to recognise the signs of Autism ad other difficulties.

As you can see, I have four very different children with different requirements of education and support. They are why I started My Incredible Life International CIC. I’m more than a mum, I’m a carer, an advocate and so much more. This is My Incredible Life supporting mums, dads, carers, disabilities, mental health and most importantly, supporting you.