Samuel Turner is a young man with a passion for supporting Cerebra.  His achievements are all the more remarkable as he is autistic, has learning difficulties and ADHD.

Samuel’s been supporting us since 2017 by raising awareness and raising funds. He promotes the charity at film festivals, conferences, town centres and at local supermarkets. He’s also organised stalls at school Summer Fetes and Christmas Fairs.

To date he and he and his family and friends have raised almost £2000 through bake sales, runs and sponsored events.  Samuel showed true grit and determination to take part in a half marathon and, when the weather turned too bad, he returned to finish the race the following week. Last year Samuel became a full time volunteer working on Cerebra’s Collection Box scheme.

Samuel’s other passion is for making films.  His first two are called “Cerebra – A Samuel Turner Story’ and ‘Cerebra – I’m Coming Home’. In 2019 he won the Jury’s Prize Award for Welsh Documentary Short Film at the Wales International Film Festival for his film ‘Where efforts begins with Cerebra’. This was an incredible achievement for Samuel and one that he’s rightly very proud of. You can take a look at Samuel’s film here.

Samuel is definitely our Star Volunteer and very much part of our team.  One person who Samuel met while fundraising got in touch to tell us: “Samuel was a pleasure to chat with. He told me a lot about your charity and told me about why he got involved. He is an absolute treasure to your charity and explained everything about your charity even quoting your website address. This young man needs to be praised as a lovely person and I wanted you to know you are lucky to have him working for your charity!”.

We appreciate Samuel’s kindness and selflessness so much and wanted to thank him for his endless passion and enthusiasm.  He is determined to demonstrate how much of a contribution people with disabilities can make to society and also, as he explains, his volunteering means a great deal to him on a personal level too:

“The great thing about working as a volunteer at Cerebra is that it makes me feel stress free and makes me proud that I got someone who I can sometimes communicate when I get working so well to promote the awareness within the charity community.”