A mother whose autistic three-year-old girl almost drowned in a lake after running off from her home said it was heartbreaking to see how quickly people could make cruel judgements about her care.

Ayda, who is also non-verbal, miraculously survived after being found face down in a lake near her home in Thatto Heath in St Helens in April 2024.

Her mother Alex Price, 40, said more awareness was needed about "autism elopement", where autistic children leave the safety of a responsible person's care or safe area, and how common it was.

"A lot of people can be quick to call it bad parenting or that you weren't watching them or you're not a good enough parent - that's not it at all," she said. "It literally takes a split second, and it happens a lot."

Ayda was being cared for by a relative when she escaped from the family home at about 13:00 BST. Her relative alerted the police immediately.

"There were hundreds of police cars," Alex continued. "They were just looking everywhere.

"She was found face-down, floating in the lake. Her nappy had kept her afloat. They all said it was like they were working on a dead body.

"The paramedics said they didn't have a pulse for a while, but they all said that they'd have stayed there all night working on her and they wouldn't have given up.

"Then they got some water up and she started breathing again."

Ayda spent two days in a coma at Alder Hey Children's Hospital before making a full recovery.

Alex said she had been heartbroken when she saw the news about three-year-old Noah Woods, who was found dead in a pond after going missing in a Suffolk village in September.

Noah was being assessed for autism at the time, although had not received a diagnosis.

A full inquest has not yet taken place, but the coroner heard during an initial hearing that Noah had left a play area "through a gap in the fence".

"I saw a lot of hate for [his relative], which was heartbreaking, because people always look for someone to blame," Alex said.

"The people who are being hateful, they don't understand autism. They're presuming it's a neurotypical child with danger awareness.

"Autistic children don't have danger awareness. They can bolt and they wander and elope and people don't know about it, so they were being really, really cruel."

According to the National Autism Association, nearly half of children with autism are at risk for wandering away from a safe setting.

Elopement is typically a form of communication, often occurring to get to something of interest or away from something bothersome, usually noise, commotion, fears and phobias.

Alex said: "Raising awareness is really important to me and educating new autistic parents, but also educating people who don't know about autism who are saying these horrible comments.

"Please try and learn about it and you might help save a child one day."