CONNECTOR.AE 58 CONNECTOR.AE 59 LIFESTYLE LIFESTYLE Connector In Conversation With Lezel Cook: A Mother’s Trek To Everest To Raise Autism Awareness When Lezel Cook reached the Everest Base Camp earlier this year, it wasn’t just a personal milestone, it was a heartfelt mission. deteriorated, and I knew something wasn’t quite right. I pushed for us to get him tested”. Diagnosis came later, around the age of three. But with it came confusion, uncertainty and the beginning of a long, transformative journey, one that would reshape the way Lezel saw the world and her role as a mother. Facing Societal Perceptions In the UAE, as in many parts of the world, the journey for parents of children with ASD is not just emotional, it is structural. “I wish the world understood how close this is to all of us. One in every ten children now is on the spectrum. That’s two kids in a classroom of twenty. And yet we act like it’s rare”, Lezel says. Societal judgement often adds to the burden. “When a child with autism throws a tantrum in public, most people don’t see a child in distress. They see poor parenting, possibly not knowing that this child could be struggling or having a meltdown, and could be needing just a minute of silence, or just a minute away. So we have so much to learn as a society to create inclusivity for these kids with autism. So many parents of neurodivergent children I know keep their children at home because they don’t want to face public judgement”. As the mother of a neuro-divergent child, Lezel’s journey up the world’s highest mountain symbolised something far greater than physical endurance. It was a powerful metaphor for the everyday battles faced by families raising children with autism. Lezel’s eight-year-old son, Xander, was diagnosed withAutismSpectrumDisorder (ASD) at the age of three. Lezel, a South African expat living in Dubai, recalls the day her world changed. “Xander was a very typical baby. Everything seemed fine until about 18 months. Then we saw the regression, as his words disappeared, his eye contact went away and he started to isolate himself from the family”. Like many parents, Lezel and her husband, Dr. Craig Cook, CEO of The Brain and Performance Centre (BPC) in Dubai, were caught off-guard. “We had never encountered autism before. We didn’t know how or where to start. We had to take a minute to catch our breath and mourn the life we thought we would have with our son”. Recognising The Signs And Starting The Journey As a stay-at-home mother, Lezel spent most of her time with Xander, and it was her who first recognised the signs of neuro-divergence. “Xander wasn’t sleeping and his speech slowly ‘‘We had to take a minute to catch our breath and mourn the life we thought we would have with our son.”
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