{"id":297,"date":"2021-03-25T10:24:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T10:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?p=297"},"modified":"2023-04-20T09:54:32","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T08:54:32","slug":"how-sense-college-sparked-asif-and-ashtons-friendship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/blog\/how-sense-college-sparked-asif-and-ashtons-friendship\/","title":{"rendered":"How Sense College sparked Asif and Ashton&#8217;s friendship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"is-style-intro\">Asif and Ashton are two friends who met while attending&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/our-services\/education-and-work\/sense-college\/\">Sense College<\/a>. They used video calls to stay connected during lockdowns. Lynn, Ashton&#8217;s mum, and Saima, Asif\u2019s sister, explain their friendship, and how they coped during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Left Out Of Life - Asif and Ashton reunited\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jmJnO6SrxKI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Lynn, Ashton&#8217;s mum<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>They\u2019ve always been so lovely together. They\u2019re just like two old men. We\u2019ve tried to keep them connected during lockdown with video calls and Ashton would have his ear on my phone. Now Asif is back at Sense, Ashton is full of smiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The past year has been very hard. Ashton likes to be doing things. He likes to be out. We go to the park and he likes to throw the ball for the dog. He can\u2019t walk long distances, so we\u2019ll do a walk with the wheelchair. We take drinks and crisps, but he needs to see people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\u2019s very tactile and loves hugging. There\u2019s no social distancing with him. That\u2019s been really hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Asif-and-Ashton-blog.jpg\" alt=\"Two men sit near each other, one has his mouth open, the other is smiling\" class=\"wp-image-298\"\/ style=\"object-position: 37.05% 28.45%;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Asif-and-Ashton-blog.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Asif-and-Ashton-blog-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Asif-and-Ashton-blog-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Asif-and-Ashton-blog-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Asif-and-Ashton-blog-500x334.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019re lucky that we had an allotment and things to amuse him here. He\u2019s just a very friendly social lad and he does love his best friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I love it that Ashton and Asif are back together. I\u2019m overjoyed and he\u2019s just so happy. For me it\u2019s lovely that he\u2019s going somewhere nice and seeing his friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Saima, Asif&#8217;s sister<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>For us, the past year we\u2019ve been keeping it really basic. Asif just stayed at home most of the time. There were occasions where he did have Zoom catch ups with a few of his friends but it\u2019s just not the same being in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He really misses that independence and that routine. It was a struggle. He really misses just being at Sense and that space where he can be expressive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now he\u2019s back, he\u2019s just extremely happy. We understand that he missed going to Sense and Ashton, but we didn\u2019t appreciate to what extent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When he first went, he came back so happy. When he attended, I remember picking him up and he was so happy to have seen Ashton. I remember seeing him just laughing. As a family, it makes us so happy to see him like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we told him that he was going to get the vaccine, Asif put two and two together and he knew that he\u2019d go back to Sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Asif is just a happy young guy. For the family, we\u2019re just so grateful and indebted to Sense for keeping in contact with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n  <div class=\"wp-block  box  ctaBox    is-style-textured-primary-tint-10\">\n    <div class=\"ctaBox__row\">\n      <div class=\"ctaBox__content\">\n        <div class=\"acf-innerblocks-container\">\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Get updates in your inbox<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;ll send you regular emails with personal stories, news and ways to get involved in our work.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n\n      <div class=\"ctaBox__cta\">\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/get-in-touch\/email-sign-up\/\" class=\"button  button--primary\">Sign up now<\/a>\n      <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n\n  <\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Asif and Ashton are two friends who met while attending\u00a0Sense College. They used video calls to stay connected during lockdowns. Lynn, Ashton&#8217;s mum, and Saima, Asif\u2019s sister, explain their friendship, and how they coped during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"display_author":[90],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","display_author-sense"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297"},{"taxonomy":"display_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_author?post=297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}