Preston is our marathon man

KEEPER’S FIGHT FOR AUTISM AWARENESS

By MATT BADCOCK

LEADING THE WAY: Preston Edwards with his son Rios and sporting successes, insets

PRESTON EDWARDS has got his hands on five promotion medals in his Non-League career and now the Cheshunt keeper is aiming to have another placed around his neck – only this time it’s the London Marathon’s!

The former England C goalkeeper, who has enjoyed success with Dover Athletic, Ebbsfleet (twice), Dulwich Hamlet and his current Ambers, is taking on the would famous 26.2 mile course on April 23.

Aiming for a time around 3 hours 30 minutes, Edwards is raising money for National Autistic Society – acharity close to his heart after his four-year-old son Rios was diagnosed with autism. Edwards wants to raise awareness to help others and make the world far more inclusive.

“The media portrays autism that they are either really smart or they can’t operate properly,” Edwards tells The NLP. “People don’t really know what autism means. My son is not extremely bright and he doesn’t have things like a speech delay.

“He just struggles to understand some things and he’s socially awkward. I want to spread more awareness and create that inclusive environment.

“There is nothing worse than seeing people left out just for the way they are born rather than the person they actually are.

“My son is obviously the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I just want the best for him.”

Edwards, who also has a young daughter, Amira, says having an autistic child has given him a different outlook.

“People don’t understand the challenges parents have to go through,” Edwards said. “My son has to have a very set routine every single day. If something is not in his routine, it messes up his whole day.

“People don’t understand that change. It has humbled me in a sense. I’ve had to adapt as a parent. In my head, when he was born, I was like, ‘Right, he’s going to be a footballer’. But you now realise that the most important thing for myself and my wife is he is independent in life. He’s able to do things himself and be the best version of him.”

Since Rios’ diagnosis, he has learnt as much as he can about the lifelong developmental disability, which affects how people communicate and interact with the world -– and he has even become an autism coordinator at the school where he is a maths teacher.

“I’ll be honest it took me a while to get over it,” Edwards says. “I knew from being in education for such a long time that there was something there.

“I thought it but I wouldn’t dare say it. Maybe I was too proud to think my son is autistic – but I didn’t know anything about it. The first time someone told me, ‘Your son is autistic’, I thanked her. I wanted to be told it. I came out and I felt relieved, a bit upset, a few tears and I said ‘I knew it’.”

Edwards, 33, is no stranger to a challenge. As well as his successful football career, he has ridden from London to Amster- dam, as well as other long-distance bike rides. But it was at a half marathon last year where he really got the running bug.

Enjoying

“You’ve got to be careful of the workload and manage it between your football,” Edwards says. “If I have a game Saturday-Tuesday I wouldn’t be able to do my long run on the Sunday because I know I wouldn’t be able to compete on a Tuesday – so I will do it on another day.

“I have to wake up at 6am every day to do my distances. It’s intense. But I thoroughly enjoy that regimented training and making sure I do the distance because I don’t want to struggle on race day.

“It’s doing things out of your comfort zone but strangely really enjoying it. The thought of me doing a marathon even before October I would have said, ‘No chance’. Now I am itching to do it and do well.”

And continue spreading a positive message around autism with the money raised going to great use.

“The National Autistic Society are the biggest autism awareness group in the country,” he says. “They do lots of things, they come to my school. And it’s making parents aware. For example, if I go to a park, my son sometimes doesn’t have the understanding where the sense of danger is. They feel they need to move their child away because he’s ‘dangerous’. But he’s not – he’s just loud.

“I understand, it’s your son or daughter, but they’re not dangerous. They are human beings.”

You can donate at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/preston-edwards1