A FOOTBALL club in Cwmtwrch who help children with autism play the sport are hoping to raise more than £500,000.

Cwm Wanderers is home to a football academy for children with autism to allow them to play football.

According to Meleri Thomas, from the National Autistic Society Cymru, too many autistic people miss out on playing sports, including football, because of a lack of understanding of their condition.

Children from the mainstream side at Cwm Wanderers help coach the academy and some youngsters have begun to integrate into it.

In total, there are 30 under-18s from across south Wales training every week, while there are 60 on a waiting list.

The academy was set up by Andrea Smith, whose son Steffan has autism, in 2017.

She said she wanted to “change the lives of the families and the children that come to the academy” and raise £500,000 in a year to cater for everyone who wants to join.

The money would help create an all-weather pitch next to the clubhouse, meaning youngsters could use it all year round.

“We’ve got a mammoth task within the next 12 months, to raise half a million pounds to turn this pitch into 4G,” she said.

“I think for the children, it would mean everything to them as well as the parents and everybody else that participates in Cwm Wanderers.”

She is launching a number of initiatives to try and raise the cash to pay for the new all-weather pitch.

“Too many autistic children and adults miss out due to a lack of understanding of what it can be like to be autistic and how this could affect someone’s experience of sport,” said Ms Thomas of the National Autistic Society Cymru.

“For example, some autistic people could have a hypersensitivity to touch and find wearing team bibs physically painful, or struggle to understand instructions if they’re not explained in plain language.”

She called it “a great local initiative”, adding: “Better understanding of autism in sport, and across society, could help transform the lives many autistic people and families in Wales.”