A drama student of mine and my own daughter’s duologue partner, Tabby, was just a year and a half old when her parents were told that she has a bilateral sensori-neural hearing loss, which in essence means that she is permanently deaf.  They were obviously shocked, confused and worried about what the future would hold for her and what they were supposed to do to help her.  At that time in Swindon, there was very little support available and the family struggled to come to terms with the diagnosis.  This is the case for many parents of deaf children (90% of deaf children are born into hearing families).

Tabby's mum decided to get involved with the (then inactive) Deaf Children's Society in Swindon.  She built the charity up by holding events to ensure deaf children meet other children with hearing aids so they don't feel so isolated and providing much needed information and support for parents.  Today, the charity is thriving, but relies purely on volunteers and funds raised by donations.  Tabby is also doing fantastically and her hearing loss never holds her back from doing anything. 

I've decided to jump out of a plane at 10,000 feet to support the charity.  Please support me to reach my minimum target of £350 to ensure the future of the charity.  Every little helps to make a big difference.

I worked in SEN for 8 years and worked with a number of students with hearing impairments. I now teach as a drama teacher and I feel that if BSL was more widely recognised and taught, I could offer more students lessons and opportunities. BSL is a language and should be acknowledged as such, we need to stop isolating our deaf community.

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