Leo was diagnosed at age 2 as living on the autistic spectrum. Whilst this didn’t impact his intellectual development, it meant that interacting with the world around him could be challenging. This was particularly true when communicating because Leo was non-verbal for many years, meaning his photographic memory had a limited outlet. Leo can now vocalise some of his thoughts and feelings.
Because of this, Leo felt strong connections to things that he could recognise instantly and that included the mhs homes branding. He was drawn to the colours and logos on the mhs homes vehicles and this was heightened when a neighbour moved in and Leo saw the van every day.
This familiarity gives Leo a sense of comfort and as such, his mum Liz, reached out to mhs homes to request some branded items that he could have for his own.
Liz explains “He points out mhs homes vans when were are out and about, and the colour that is on the van like green van or purple van. Sometimes he will even sing when he sees something associated with the mhs homes brand. Although he may not laugh and or smile, I can tell that Leo is really happy when he is doing this.”
mhs homes took this a step further and not only organised for him and his brother to have a bag full of mhs branded goodies, but also arranged for Leo to go for a drive in a new mhs electric van. The van picked Liz and Leo up from their family home and brought them both to the Broadside offices, where there were even more vans for him to get inside and explore. Leo wore his very own mhs cap and set off around the car park as a passenger.
Liz adds “As soon as he saw the van outside today, his hands started moving and I can tell he is so happy and will talk about this all of the time now.
I was going to leave this experience as a surprise, but about two weeks ago he really wanted to get into the neighbour’s van and the only way I could snap him out of it was by starting a countdown until the day he can go in an mhs van. We’ve been counting down and looking forward to this day ever since.”
Once Leo had finished dancing in the passenger seat and checking the vehicle horns were working, he had a quick look around the mhs homes offices with his mother before setting back off home, goody bag in tow. The joy Leo experienced rubbed off on every mhs colleague that had the privilege to meet with him that day. mhs homes hopes that Leo, Liz and the rest of the family can treasure the memory of that day.
Liz summarised the experience by saying, “I'm bit overwhelmed by the kindness of it all. It is lovely that mhs homes colleagues have taken this step just to elevate the joy Leo associates with mhs homes.
We would’ve been happy with a couple of branded items but the fact he got to get in the vans, go for a drive, have a look around the offices and has a bag of branded goodies to take away with him is very exciting for him.
I can tell he has really loved it and we really appreciate mhs going the extra mile by providing us with this experience to make happy memories for Leo to look back on.”