Paige Allport

Hello! My name is Paige, I'm 20 and currently a student at De Montfort University studying Fashion Design! Since I was 4 I've had so many operations to try and fix my hearing, I've had glue ear all my life about 3/4 operations for gromits/t-tubes that all failed removal of adenoids and tonsils in seperate operations to try fix glue ear which also failed and I can get multiple ear infections in a month. At 18 I was discharged for unknown reasons and now at 20 my hearing is starting to deteriorate further as I now have a large perforation in my right eardrum that cant be fixed without an operation as well as retraction and a retracted eardrum in my left ear and continuous hearing loss. I wish Id have been taught BSL from a younger age but doctors hoped Id "grow out" of my hearing loss which clearly didnt happen. Since I can't I cant currently be seen by ENT in hospital Im spending my time learning BSL to aid myself aswell as hopefully educate others as at some point I wont have my hearing anymore. I personally think BSL shuld be a mandatory subject within schools, Ive known fingerspelling all my life but its not exactly easy to communicate with just knowledge of that. I curently work seasonally with Go Ape and experience customers with many different abilities, I feel ignorant if I dont know how to communicate with deaf customers and help them out as one day that might be me and id appreciate people learning to help me. But all the negatives aside, I cant wait to hopefully be fluent and teach others BSL and educate them on the deaf community.