Social media can truly be a force of positive change. For one dad, especially, it changed his son’s life. Marc Carter’s 14-year-old son Ben has autism–since he was 2 years old, he has refused to drink out of anything but one specific sippy cup. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if the cup wasn’t discontinued. As you can imagine, this is problematic.
Ben’s dad opened up in a Twitter post about what’s been doing on, hoping the Twitter world could help him out–since Ben’s current cup is falling apart. He wrote:
“Ben hasn’t drunk at school since the age of 5, he doesn’t drink outside of the house so we can’t go anywhere. People say he will drink when he’s thirsty, but two emergency trip to [the ER] with severe dehydration say otherwise.”
Reward for cup like this! Son has severe #autism & would rather go to A&E dehydrated than use ANY other cup – colour shape etc PLEASE SHARE pic.twitter.com/iglWs9IKA9
— Grumpy Carer (@GrumpyCarer) November 14, 2016
This is when the social media world responded–in a truly amazing way. In just two days, Marc’s post gained over 17K retweets and 5.2K likes, as complete strangers were trying to help. The hashtag #CupForBen even spread across the world–in multiple languages. Tommee Tippee, the brand that makes Ben’s preferred cup, even got in on the search, too, which is incredible for a major company to actually show they care. Tommee Tippee ended up taking over the hashtag.
Hello @GrumpyCarer we have a dedicated team at Tommee Tippee Towers searching the cupboards for Ben’s cup! #FingersCrossed #CupForBen
— tommee tippee UK (@tommeetippee_UK) November 15, 2016
The outpour of love completely overwhelmed Marc–thankfully, the company found a few cups to last them a few years, although the challenge is that Ben will need them for hte rest of his life, as he wrote in a new Twitter update:
“The reality is Ben is unlikely to change, so I will need these for the rest of his life. That’s a lot of cups.”
My BIG #CupForBen UPDATE – please share for me! pic.twitter.com/D7F12fMIFl
— Grumpy Carer (@GrumpyCarer) November 15, 2016
It’s so refreshing to see people coming together to help each other out. If you happen to have one of these cups, contact Marc using @PMPProject and #CupForBen.
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