Autism activist attempting hugging world record in Poole today
Arsenal Whittick has struggled with physical affection his whole life
A Bournemouth man, who couldn’t even hug his own daughters a decade ago, is attempting to break the record for ‘Most Hugs in a Minute’ today (Sunday 19th January).
Father of two, Arsenal Whittick told us one of his girls even tried taking her own life after being refused a hug and feeling 'unloved' growing up.
But now the autism activist is determined to overcome his battle with physical affection, with a record attempt at Poole's Dolphin Centre at 1.00pm.
Arsenal explained his reasons for wanting to break this record in particular:
"I’d never really showed affection to my two girls and I didn’t realise it was hurting them. In 2010, my 14-year-old daughter came home from school in tears, came up to me and put her head on my shoulder for a hug and I just stood there. That night she went to bed thinking I never loved her, and she tried to take her own life.
“On 26th May 2011, I was diagnosed with autism and then I started to learn about autism, the things I can do and the things I can’t do. One of the main things I wanted to do was be able to hug my two girls.
“On Christmas day in 2014, I gave them their presents and I said to them, ‘I’ve got one more present for you.’ I tried to hug them and I just couldn’t enter their space. It took about twenty minutes to half an hour and then I finally hugged them, and they cried.
“Since then, the world record attempt has just been a goal to prove I can do it.
“To beat the world record would just be an honour for me to show people that give us time to process, and with the right help, we can do things.”
Carmen Davies, Community Manager at The Dolphin said:
“We’ve regularly provided space for Arsenal to promote his biography A Boy Called Arsenal at The Dolphin over the last twelve months. Arsenal’s story has helped bring the community closer together and provoked many thoughtful conversations about autism for lots of families affected by it.
"We’re excited to be supporting Arsenal with this big next step and The Dolphin team will be behind him every step of the way.”
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