“Awarded charity status in 2006, Thinking Autism claims to “change lives” by providing “hope, emotional support and practical information” to autistic people and their families, and has received £389,750 from the lottery fund since 2015.
It is jointly run by Joanne Allman, a vocal Covid sceptic who last year stood as a local election candidate in Sefton, Merseyside, for the Freedom Alliance, a “campaigning political party” born out of the pandemic to “resist attacks on medical freedom and body autonomy”.
Its website carries testimonials for unproven autism “treatments” including homeopathy and “CEASE therapy”, a pseudoscientific approach that claims to remove supposed toxic effects from outside sources, including vaccines.”