Veteran Scots broadcaster Ken Bruce hopes MBE highlights ‘many difficulties’ of autism

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Scots radio legend Ken Bruce said he hopes being made an MBE will highlight the challenges facing autistic people following his son’s diagnosis.The 72-year-old broadcaster is among the people recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours as he is appointed to the rank for his services to radio, autism awareness and to charity.He said in a statement to the PA news agency: “This is a great surprise and privilege.“I hope it might help highlight the many difficulties autistic people face.”In 2009, Bruce released his autobiography Tracks Of My Years, speaking about his experience raising his autistic son Murray, who is non-verbal, with his third wife Kerith.The radio DJ said it took three years before his son was diagnosed, writing in the Daily Mail: “It didn’t come as a surprise.

But I can’t pretend it wasn’t a blow.“It was not easy to accept I had an autistic son. Some say that after such a diagnosis you have to grieve for your lost child.

I don’t like the terminology.“Yes, you regret the lost opportunities and the changes it will mean to family life. I remember one of my early reactions was sadness that I wouldn’t be able to tell him bad jokes and hear him laugh.“But my child is not lost.

He is simply different.”This year, Bruce and Murray appeared in Springwatch star Chris Packham’s BBC Two documentary Inside Our Autistic Minds, exploring what it is like to have the condition and increasing understanding of it.The Palace has said the radio DJ is being made an MBE for his services to raising awareness of autism as well as his work in radio and within charity.Bruce first joined the BBC in 1977 as a Radio Scotland presenter and his first regular slot on Radio 2 was the Saturday Late Show in 1984.The following year he fronted the