Deaf Awareness week is soon approaching and we want to help our colleague, IT Support Officer, Sean Roden-Hardwick, raise money for The National Deaf Children’s Society. Sean will be completing their ‘50k in May’ challenge. He will be walking or running a total of 50k or more during next month.

Sean’s story

Sean has a personal connection to this charity, as his son was diagnosed as moderate to severely deaf at 6 weeks old.

Sean’s son Arthur, was born just over 8 and half month ago and after completing all post-natal checks and further tests, they got the news that he wasn’t responding to the hearing tests and would need further examinations with Audiology.

Sean says; “Arthur has been wearing hearing aids since he was 8 weeks old and rocks them like a champ! I want to make people more aware of the importance around Deaf Awareness Week, since becoming a parent to a deaf child I have found that they are left behind in so many areas, mainly education.

We’ve seen on TV & in films, that deaf actors are just as talented, if not more, as hearing actors (highlighted in the Oscars and BAFTA’s). I want my boy to know that he can do and be anything he wants too; So I’m raising funds for a charity that will support him until he’s an adult. Therefore, in May, I will be aiming to complete the National Society for Deaf children’s 50k challenge.

For now, Arthur is happy, healthy and starting to sign (mostly “more”) and reaching all his development milestones.”

We are really grateful to Sean for sharing his story and we know with support like this from his amazing parents, Arthur will be a little superstar! Thank you to our Foundation Learning students, Ella & Lewis for their video of support.

Let’s give Sean a head start, click here to donate – Sean’s Fundraising Page You can read more about the National Deaf Children’s Society here – National Deaf Children’s Society

Deaf Awareness week is 2-8th May 2022