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Melanie Roach - Olympic Hopeful + Mother w/ an Autistic son

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alex
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12 May 2008, 10:05 am

After being written about in the Chicago Tribune, I got contacted by the manager of Melanie Roach, an Olympic hopeful who is the mother of an autistic boy. Her manager pointed me to an article in the New York Times about Melanie.

Based on what I've heard and read about Melanie, her story is a positive one of hope and celebration for parents of autistics.

I'm going to run an interview with Melanie next week. But for now check out some of the press she's received:
http://tinyurl.com/5k4twe
http://tinyurl.com/6hrxsq

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLVjca5EqVY&eurl=http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2008/05/12/olympic-hopeful-melanie-roach-a-typical-117-pound-woman-who-can/[/youtube]


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alex
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12 May 2008, 10:19 am

Here's a great quote from the article:

Quote:
In December 2005, Roach, a Mormon, went to see her bishop. “This is not what I signed up for,” she said.

“This is exactly what you signed up for,” he replied. That message not only changed her outlook about Drew, it changed her outlook about weight lifting.


A lot of parents lose hope because they focus on trying to cure their child without success. Melanie went through a similar period of depression with feeling of loss, but she was able to change her attitude.


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Fogman
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12 May 2008, 11:20 am

I'm looking forwards to the interview. --I also wouldn't mind seeing a WP exclusive interview with John Elder Robison.


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wsmac
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24 May 2008, 10:22 pm

I just saw her story through another website and thought I'd post it here... glad I checked around first.


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9CatMom
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25 May 2008, 9:40 am

Interesting!



CockneyRebel
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25 May 2008, 12:36 pm

Another one of those curbies.


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25 May 2008, 2:12 pm

Actually, Cockney, based on the interview with her on ABC Evening News, quite the opposite. She wants her son's strengths recognized, and his differences accepted. At first, like most people, she knew nothing about autism, and thought there was some sort of "cure" (because when one begins looking, one finds rather a lot of curebie propaganda out there), but she has since learned that the propaganda is just that, and that her son is just fine the way he is. (In fact, I kind of got the feeling that if you tried at this point to tell her that her son needs "cured", she'd start foaming as fast as my wife does when someone says that about our daughter!)


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