Deaf Chorley boy helps raise charity cash (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Deaf Chorley boy helps raise charity cash
7:50am Tuesday 17th July 2012 in Chorley
By Chris Gee, Reporter
Joanne Speakman and son Connor
Shoppers and supermarket staff helped a Chorley mum and her profoundly deaf little boy raise funds for charity.
Joanne Speakman, a sales assistant at Iceland, Market Walk shopping centre, organised a cake bake at the Chorley store and raised more than £300 for the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS).
The charity has been a constant source of support to Joanne whose three-year-old son, Connor Whittaker, was diagnosed as profoundly deaf when he was just two weeks old. Connor communicates using a mixture of sign language and lip reading. He also has very well developed speech despite his disability.
Joanne, 25, of Rivington Road, said: “Connor is the only deaf person in my family and so it was a shock when we found out, but we have always tried to see it as a positive, a chance to learn something new and Connor copes amazingly with it all.
“He is such a happy and content child. He really does seem to take it all in his stride and never sees it as a problem.”
She said: “We are a bit of a family here at Iceland and my friends here were fantastic. All I did was put up a sign to say I was doing it and every single member of staff did something to help from making cakes to standing with me on the stall for six and a half hours selling them.
“Our customers were so generous too and I was pretty amazed when I counted up to find we raised £325.”
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