The Hearing Centre is supporting Josephine Gibbons, who is running the 2018 London Marathon on 22 April 2018 for The National Deaf Children’s Society.
Founded in 1944 by the parents of deaf children, The National Deaf Children’s Society’s original objective was to ‘further in every way possible the provision of full modern education for all deaf children in England, as originally accorded to hearing children.’ Today, the support provided to parents reflects the same vision and values, with the society supporting families with deaf children from birth to age 25.
Josephine is choosing to give back to this charity after having experienced its support first-hand:
“For families who do have deaf children, learning to support and communicate with them can seem to be a daunting challenge; for deaf children, it can be isolating and frustrating at times – even I’ve experienced this, and I’m only half deaf! The National Deaf Children’s Society does vital work helping families to overcome the obstacles of raising their child in a hearing world; it also provides many opportunities and experiences for the children to increase their self-confidence.”
The Hearing Centre are supporting Josephine to raise the profile of the importance of deaf awareness. Commenting on the cause, Head Audiologist at The Hearing Centre Claire Marshall says: “Being aware of deafness and its signs is a huge contributor in ensuring that children receive the right support as early as possible, so that hearing problems are dealt with and children aren’t left for days, weeks or months without being able to hear properly.”
As well as sponsoring Josephine themselves, the team at The Hearing Centre urge others who can relate to giving children the best start in life to do the same and to help spread the message:
“Support at a young age can have a huge impact on a child’s quality of life and their achievements” says Claire. “We’re really pleased to support Josephine, who is testament to this herself.”
Deaf awareness has risen in the media recently with the Oscar winning British short film The Silent Child telling the story of a four-year-old girl called Libby, who lives in a world of silence until a social worker teaches her to communicate using sign language. While the film does a good job of showing the world what it’s like for a child to be deaf, people like Josephine are helping to raise even more awareness of the 45,000+ deaf children living in the UK, 40% of which have additional needs and 77% of whom have no specialist provision when attending mainstream schools in the UK.
If you would like to support Josephine, please sponsor her and share her message using her JustGiving profile.
