Deafness Awareness Week - get your hearing checked
28 June 2010
Deafness Research UK received a welcome boost for Deaf Awareness Week (28 June – 4 July) when Professional Hearing Care and support specialists KIND Hearing agreed to donate £3 to the charity for each person who visits their branch during this week.
KIND Hearing have branches in Kent, Hertfordshire, Wimbledon, Essex and London and everyone is welcome to come into a branch and have their hearing tested and/or an in-depth maintenance check of their hearing aids. This will be done free of charge, and since KIND will donate £3 to Deafness Research UK for everyone who walks through the door, this is a perfect opportunity for people to have a free professional consultation while supporting deafness research in the UK.
Vivienne Michael, Chief Executive of Deafness Research UK, said: “We would like to thank KIND Hearing for this wonderful offer. Deaf Awareness Week is one of the few opportunities we have in the year to get our message across and if we can raise more vital funds for deafness research in the process, then the week will have been a great success. We receive no help from the government, so if it were not for the support of the public and generous offers from companies like KIND Hearing, we would be unable to continue our groundbreaking projects and research.
With several new projects underway, the charity needs support more than ever. One of these projects is the new Auditory Centres of Excellence (ACE) initiative. Launched at the charity’s silver jubilee in the presence of its patron the Duke of York, these state of the art centres will expand hearing research at five state of the art research centres across the country – in Cambridge, London, Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield.
Each ACE will be tackling the challenge of understanding and treating deafness and hearing impairment in different ways and they will also be focusing on stimulating the multi-disciplinary, collaborative approach that is so important to making progress in hearing research and on delivering real clinical benefit to hearing impaired people. The programme will advance research into childhood deafness, improving hearing aids and cochlear implants, treating tinnitus and preventing hearing loss and restoring hearing.
Our new Auditory Centres of Excellence will be invaluable in enabling us to deliver the results the deaf community truly deserves and the donations from KIND Hearing will help us get our ACE appeal off to a flying start added Ms Michael. Deafness affects one in seven of the UK population, a staggering nine million people, yet there is still less than £2 per person spent on research into deafness each year, so KIND’s support is truly appreciated.
KIND Hearing is happy to support Deaf Awareness Week,” said Debbie Barnaba, Office Manager of KIND Hearing Ltd. “We will donate £3 to Deafness Research UK for each person who visits the branch during Deaf Awareness Week. We have branches in Maidstone, Streatham, Leigh-on-Sea or Ware and everyone is welcome for a free no obligation consultation over tea and biscuits.
Deaf Awareness Week this year sees charities like Deafness Research UK who work with deaf people across the country, coming together with over 100 deaf charities and organisations throughout the country to promote a series of local and national events, of which the KIND promotion is just one example of this in action at a local level.
For information on deafness and deafness-related conditions e-mail or visit Deafness Research UK’s website at www.deafnessresearch.org.uk For further information on KIND, visit www.kind.com or call the Maidstone branch on 01622 626 988.
