Macauely Elvin knows what it is like to be bullied. The 20-year-old college student has autism and that was one of the reasons, he says, that he ended up a target for unkind comments and behaviour. 

“I know what it is like to be bullied and my family was bullied also because my brother and I have autism,” he says. “It is not a nice feeling.”

In an effort to help prevent other students going through the experience he had to endure, Macauley has released a charity single called Hollow. His aim is to raise awareness and funding for anti-bullying initiatives,

Hollow, written and performed by Macauely, shines a spotlight on the torment faced by children and young people with autism every day in schools, and is part of the Anna Kennedy Online’s “Give us a break” campaign.

At age 4, Macauely was diagnosed with aspergers, dyspraxia, semantic, pragmatic disorder and severe asthma, and suffered from bullying throughout his entire school life.

Macauely poured all of his efforts into music and became involved with the charity after entering their Autism’s Got Talent competition.

The charity says that children with autism spectrum disorders are bullied nearly five times more often than their developing peers, but that often parents feel the rate is even higher than that.

Charity founder, Anna Kennedy, says: “Bullying can make any child’s life unbearable and families contact our charity sharing their children are being bullied in schools because of their autism.

“It’s simply unacceptable for any childhood to be spoilt by victimisation or bullying, and as a charity, we support a zero-tolerance approach to all forms of bullying.”

All of the proceeds from the single will be donated to the charity, to help fund projects that help pupils and families affected by bullying. 

You can support Macauely and others pupils by buying his single on Amazon. 

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