In memory of our beautiful boy, we have made it our mission to bring about change so that other families do not have to go through the daily heartache of losing a child to suicide.

We feel extremely passionate about raising awareness in society, through film making, the media, sharing our story and raising money to help young neurodivergent people live a long and happy life. We have since met many families with similar stories. All the children were neurodiverse and there is a total absence of support for families in crisis. Despite repeated failures, lessons are still not being learned nor is funding being made available to avert these tragedies.

As the number of neurodivergent teenagers taking their lives increases rapidly, and to help autistic people feel like they have a well deserved place in this world, we must get to the root and address the issues which lead so many young neurodivergent people to their demise. By educating society about inclusivity and autism, we need to help the neurodivergent community feel accepted, embraced and accommodations made to help them fit in, be understand and receive the love and care they deserve. Being autistic is not a negative it’s a gift and so much more needs to be done to change the stigma.

So we have set up Leo’s Safe Haven’ a community charity working in collaboration with the charity ‘Autistica’. All funds raised will go to ‘Autistica’ who are doing groundbreaking research and campaigning. Together we hope to raise awareness to create safe havens in society, whether that be in schools, at home, in the local community or in a psychiatric unit.

We hope to make Leo proud and walk the path he never got to take and bring about much needed change in society in his memory.

Autistica is the UK’s leading autism research and campaigning charity. Our mission is to create breakthroughs that enable autistic people to live happier, healthier, longer lives. We do this by funding research, shaping policy and working with autistic people to make more of a difference.

We were founded in 2004 by entrepreneur and philanthropist Dame Stephanie Shirley CH, whose son Giles was autistic.

Dame Stephanie – or ‘Steve’ as she was known – was a highly successful entrepreneur turned philanthropist. She arrived in Britain as an unaccompanied child refugee from Germany in 1939. In 1962, she started the leading business technology group that became Xansa (now Steria). She was made a Dame in the Millennium Honours List for services to the computing industry.

Through her charitable Shirley Foundation, she initiated pioneering projects in autism, including founding Autistica. Her son, Giles, was autistic and died aged 35 in 1998. Steve’s other charitable initiatives included making better use of information technology in the voluntary sector. 

Sadly, Dame Stephanie passed away in August 2025, aged 91