The first thing you notice about Jo-Ann D’Costa-Manuel is how tiny she is; she recently opened her door and was asked, ‘Is your mummy in?’
Then how attractive and chatty she is (no surprise that she did a drama degree and worked in children’s telly). But the lasting impression is of a woman (she’s 39) who’ll do anything to improve the lives of families whose lives are touched, as hers is, by the complicated, little-understood condition, autism.
In 2010, Jo-Ann and her husband, Wayne, quit their jobs (she was a recruiter, he designs telecoms networks), sold their house and moved to Australia with their daughter, Sienna, then four, and son Cruzy, one.
Less than a year later, Cruzy began to regress. ‘He’d been so sociable and easy-going,’ says Jo-Ann. ‘At…
