A lock-in to see what it is like to be autistic and raise awareness was held at a bank in St Albans last week.

Each day, a staff member at the Barclays branch in St Peter's Street volunteered to be locked in a glass office at the front of the store.

The person locked only had access to a computer to do work, no mobile phones and was let out for toilet breaks.

The Mayor of St Albans, Salih Gaygusuz visited the store on Friday and let the last staff member, Ken Heard, out.

The week long event, which organised in conjunction with harc - the Hertfordshire branch of the National Autistic Society charity.

Chair of harc, Maxine Bromyard had told the Review: "The idea behind this lock-in was to stimulate what it is like to have autism - to see the world but not be part of it."

As well as the lock-in there was a pop-up shop and a tombola, which raised £559.35 for the charity.

Barclays have matched the money raised from the tombola, making the total raised for harc £1118.70.

Ms Bromyad said: "I want to say a massive thank you to all the team at Barclays who volunteered to be locked in for autism, manned the pop-up shop, gave donations for the tombola and put up with our presence for a week.

"We ere surprised at the number of people coming into the branch, who either had autism themselves or had relatives with autism, and had a story to tell about the need for support.

"Overall it has been a fantastic experience for us in raising awareness of autism."