This was the jewels in the crown for our 13 year old during our visit to Manchester. Not only did he get invited to use the sensory room facilities but we had also booked him a stadium tour.

I will start with the City v Burnley match that we were invited to attend. My son has sensory processing difficulties and as much as he adores football he cannot be in a regular stadium crowd for more than a few minutes at a time before he becomes overloaded. Therefore I requested to join the waiting list for the Etihad Stadiums Sensory room. The wait was not as long as I imagined although maybe longer now. Lucy got in touch 2 weeks before the game and can I just say Lucy is amazing! Such quick responses to any questions I had and it wasn't as if I gave a list of questions and let her respond. I'd message randomly with any questions that popped up and she was very quick and knowledgeable on her response.

PK, Bet, Grace and Ross (the accent now has myself and partner in debate whether it was Ross or Russ sorry!) We're all amazing. pK rang me in advance and we made arrangements to meet. I even messaged him on the day to reconfirm everything and ask questions and like when we spoke he was incredibly helpful.

We arrived shockingly early due to not knowing the area, arriving on public transport as we would rather be very early than late. Unfortunately the amount of rain falling that night was crazy by the time we arrived we were soaked through. By our meeting point that happened to be an entrance so we asked the staff if we could wait inside and they were so lovely and helpful. Everyone throughout our entire experience was just so happy, lovely, kind warming people. The staff who were greeting guests would come over in-between and speak with my son and ourselves. They said to go over to the reception area screen and he got to watch his hero's arrive to the stadium on there which was amazing for him.

The sensory room and team who coordinate it are just the best, everything had been though about accessibility is visible throughout the stadium for those who cannot manage the stairs, allergies catered for. My son is known for autistic masking and the staff seemed to acknowledge that but not make a show of it. The entire time there was based on how my son was, how he felt and what he would like to do, if he wanted to experience the stadium outside there were seats available and he did go out a few times including to see the final whistle he did tell us it was so loud he was struggling but knew to come back inside before everything became too much as he was too frightened to miss a second. The staff, the club did everything and more. The sensory room itself my son was gutted he didn't have more time for because he was just bowled over by the size of the stadium, the amount of people and then ofcourse the match and the players. Thankfully they won! We all got food at half time and before the game the mascots came in and were cheeky and very entertaining a feature we weren't expecting. Moonchester and Moonbeam were a huge hit with my son. The light show prior to the game was something else. My son warmed to the whole experience and said it was the best day of his life. I could go on and on about the whole experience everyone was met, spoke to and spent time with at the game was an absolute pleasure. Our time there was one of the best experience of our lives not just our son.

The next day we went on the stadium tour. We arrived late due to getting lost but staff kindly put us on the next tour as there was availability so we did not miss out on anything. We were given lanyards to keep (my son loves a lanyard and now has 2 Man City ones which he thinks is awesome) we had a photo taken with some of the trophies and given a card for other photo opportunities around the tour. We felt the prices for the photos were very reasonable. Our tour guides Steve and Julie were just so much fun they love their job as it visibly shows. Very funny people with what seems like a similar sense of humour to ourselves. They made the experience just the best.