Blast off! Space-mad boy with autism inspires doll for kids on the spectrum

It was blast-off for one boy’s development after happening to watch a rocket launch. Now he’s got his very own space doll, writes Áilín Quinlan

“10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...” It was December 2015 and as astronaut Tim Peake blasted off from Kazakhstan en route to the International Space Station, no one could have been more surprised than Caroline Geraghty when her five-year-old loudly joined in the TV countdown.