‘‘When we needed them most, they were there for us,’’ Mrs Finlay, of Warners Bay, said. ‘‘They taught us how to interact with our child, Thomas – and taught him how he could relate to us.’’

‘‘We could never turn our back on them.’’

The Finlay family have this year extended their support of the school, which has included fund-raising and awareness, to host the first Bootcamp for Autism.

Mrs Finlay’s personal trainer Connor Perry from Muscle Systems at Gateshead and seven other trainers will lead the event at King Edward Park on April 11.

More than 100 registered participants – including NBN’s Natasha Beyersdorf, My Kitchen Rules’ Carly and Tresne and The Block’s Maxine and Karstan – have been asked to wear bright colours, to signify the breadth of the autism spectrum.

Mrs Finlay said the family felt ‘‘hopeful but helpless’’ when they enrolled Thomas, who was diagnosed as having high functioning autism, in the school when he was three years old.

He participated in the Building Blocks early intervention program and joined the base school between four and six years old. Thomas then attended an Aspect satellite class in mainstream schools in Belmont and Waratah, where he spent some time learning in the traditional classroom setting.

He joined mainstream Newcastle Grammar at the age of 11, halfway through term three of year five last year.

Thomas’ teachers from Aspect Hunter School continue to keep in touch with him.

‘‘Even putting the wonderful education he received at Aspect Hunter School aside, the social and behavioural life skills he learned and how he has been able to use them in other settings has been invaluable,’’ Mrs Finlay said.

‘‘If you had asked me 12 months ago, I would have said he may never be able to go to a school camp – but he did go along in March and he loved it.’’

Mrs Finlay hopes the Bootcamp for Autism will become an annual event during Autism Awareness Month.

‘‘I want to take that judgmental stigma away – people with autism didn’t choose to have that disability,’’ she said.

‘‘We need to accept people for who they are and how they represent themselves.’’

Mrs Finlay said she had not yet read this week’s news reports about a Canberra school that  had a two-by-two-metre pool fencing ‘‘cage’’ made for  a 10-year-old boy with autism.

 ‘‘I find those stories very, very confronting and very, very hard to read,’’ she said.

‘‘I don’t know if I’ll ever read it – I find those stories a bit raw.’’

‘‘Kids can be quite aggressive – we sometimes ask ‘Where do they find the strength?’ But no one should be put in that position. That could have been Thomas and it’s just not appropriate.’’

Bootcamp for Autism will be held from 7am to 8am on April 11, with the $10 entry to go towards the Aspect Hunter School. 

For tickets visit autismspectrum.org.au/bootcamp