Mum's saying thanks with a musical show

Sep 5 2007 By Anna Jeys, Birmingham Mail

AN EAST Birmingham mum has decided to give something back to the charity who helped her autistic son by organising a fund-raising event this week.

Cris Morgan, 54, who lived in Shard End for 19 years before recently moving to Burton-Upon-Trent, says a Birmingham-based charity was a life-line as she tried to raise her son Jonathon, who suffers with the disease.

Autism is a brain disorder which affects how the sufferer can communicate with others.

So as a thank you to the Edgbaston-based Autistic Society, she has organised her first music show, which will have a cocktail theme, in Burton-Upon-Trent.

Cris has previously raised money for the Acorns hospice in Walsall by auctioning off one of her paintings, Sunset at Drake.

Jonathan is now 19 and attending a catering course at college, but mum Cris says it would not have been possible without the help of the charity.

The event will be at Burton Town Hall tomorrow and Friday.

Cocktails and canapes are being served to the main hall audience at 7pm and the main show begins at 7.30pm.

Cris hopes the cash will go towards the continuation of a project to set up police forums to help youngsters with autism cope if they are arrested, a victim of crime or a witness.

The scheme has already been set up in the West Midlands and hopes to expand to Staffordshire.

Cris, who also suffers from multiple sclerosis herself, said: "This is a way of thanking the Autistic Society based in Edgbaston for all their help and support they have given during Jonathon's difficult childhood.

"Its partly in credit to them that Jonathon is now able to cope with every day life."

Tickets, priced £7- £10, are available on 01283 566744 or 07821 470638.