I remember thinking 2020 is going to be my year, finally I’m getting somewhere, I’m going places, I had work plans, a diary full of work and travel all round Europe and Scandinavia - many events booked a year in advance, why?  Because clients wanted me!  Yes, I was approached directly.  I cannot express how good that feels.  My hard work, my desire and persistence to make a difference had really begun to pay off my work, my commitment and passion for accessibility, inclusion and positive change noticed for what it is.  The importance of diversity.  Could things really be taking off for me?

I have been self employed for 4 years and my hard work had begun to pay off, things were popping up here and there and with other bits of contracted work, life was heading in the right direction - finally able to save for the first time in years, to move out and be independent. 

The first 2 work trips of the year went according to plan, first to Stockholm and the next to Paris, both went really well and then BANG, COVID-19 struck big time.

Of course I had heard about it but I certainly hadn’t considered the severe impact it would have on everything and everybody.

Lockdown struck leaving us all a little lost. Thankfully I had my work at Sigma IT to keep me going and how important that was, we could continue to work remotely, however then came furlough and along with it routine and structure flew out of the window. 

The nightmare continued:

“You can leave the house once for essential shopping or independent exercise” 

“Masks must be warn at all times”

“Keep 2m distance at all times”

Truth be told I didn’t leave the house, not for a long time. Essential shopping? The thought made me heart race, how could I being deafblind be able to exercise the 2 meter distance rule? Let alone find essential items in a busy shop full of anxious people wearing face coverings: obstructing my ability to ask for assistance!

After a fair few weeks I did build up the strength with the help of my family to go for walks with the dogs from time to time, but even that I did find it tough to keep up.  

Hibernation was something a tad too familiar to me, a bit too easy for me to fall into. I could feel myself falling, I recalled when I first came home from boarding school (for good) all those years ago, all I would do was hibernate - sleep became my best friend! 

My old friend anxiety and his best mate depression swept over me and I just felt defeated, deflated and tired. 

My family and friends allowed me time to reflect and to straighten myself out as best I could and as time went by I did come to terms with the situation. 

This time I was not alone in a world of isolation, the world that many deafblind like myself can live in, in fact more than ever before many had entered our world and they were also struggling.

Three of my closest friends made it their mission to FaceTime regularly, arranging quiz nights and chinwags with a glass (maybe two!!) or wine. This became my routine, became my social interaction and my medicine - seeing familiar faces made my heart warm.  We like so many found a way of following the strict rules of lockdown and socialising.

I became motivated to start the family quizzes as the almost daily calls to my grandad who lives on his own did not feel enough. He has an iPad - the exact iPad I tell everyone I helped set him up on, why not put to good use and keep him in the loop?

Wednesdays became family quiz nights with Grandad, my parents, my sister and I plus my auntie and two of my cousins.  We would join from 3 devices (this household, auntie’s household then grandad’s) to make it a little less confusing for grandad. 

Thursdays became immediate family quiz nights - My parents, sister, brother and girlfriend plus brother and wife (with beautiful nephew of course.) 

We had a routine, that’s when things got a little easier. 

Lockdown eased and we could do a little more, but with precautions. This of course made me very nervous. I struggled with it for a while and again, would avoid it whenever possible!  My friends made the effort to come and sit in my garden or go for walks and get coffee - all at a distance but knowing they could still offer assistance if absolutely needed be, again my nearest and dearest made me feel safe when I couldn’t be sure for myself.

I then braved the train for the first time in several months with Bella, she was keen as ever to dust down her harness and get me back out. We did a short run to Reading where one of my friends lives to see her new flat, she had offered to pick me up and drive me home but I insisted on doing at least one of the trips independently - and I am glad I did.  Bella doesn’t do social distancing but she does safe and Im good with that, we do have to rely on the public realising we can only do what is possible and they must consider we do our best in the most difficult of situations.

Somehow the Molly Watt Trust carried on as best it could with Mum rallying the troops, finding local ladies and gents to come together to make home made accessible face coverings (face masks with a large clear window) whilst we searched for an outlet to buy in bulk.  Those face coverings made life a little more doable for those of us who rely on lipreading, in fact the compulsary wearing of facemasks made so many people much more aware of how much they relied on lipreading and facial gesture even though not knowingly deaf or hard of hearing.

We also continued to work with our friends and supporters, with those at GN Hearing and audiologist Sarah Vokes at Correct Hearing to bring the gift of hearing to two more people living with Usher Syndrome - huge thanks to all involved in making this happen.  Hoping to continue this work into 2021.

Then came another lockdown then Tiers then more tiers... Honestly I am a little lost with it all at this stage. 

All I know is Christmas was strange. My sister gave birth to beautiful baby boy almost 3 months ago and his presence in this household has made life in lockdown/ tiers far more bearable. 

I first became an auntie the day before the first lockdown struck - this was really tough!!

Casper is now 9 months old and an absolutely gorgeous bundle of joy.  It was so hard not being able to meet Casper the first 3 and a half months of his life. 

Living with Noah who is almost 3 months has made me feel almost sadder that we missed those months with Casper, though we were inundated with pictures and video calls, not being able to meet him, to smell him, to cuddle him and listen to his coos in the first few months were precious times, lost. 

Speaking of listening in September of 2020 I began wearing Resound One smart hearing aids that for me was a high point, one of the few, it coincided with me getting to see so much more of Casper and the little man had found his voice.  I got to experience his cooing, gurgling sounds, his raspberry blowing, his giggles, his belly laughs along with his squealing and crying.  I got to play with him with all his noisy toys, boy can toys be noisy!  I didn’t get to appreciate noisy toys when I was little my hearing aids simply weren’t up to it!  I have to say I enjoyed every sound of his, he really is the cutest.

Casper loves a squeaky Hey Duggee toy and loves to watch The Chase, he seems to find the buzzer sound amusing.  So much joy to be had with the gift of hearing, thank you ReSound I’m enjoying the gift of sound more and more.

Back to Christmas: we were thrown into Tier 4 days beforehand meaning the original “three family bubble” wasn't going to happen. To say I was gutted was an understatement. 

Casper and Noah’s first Christmas was something we had all looked forward to - we’d bought matching outfits for the boys and so many presents for them.  Naturally we wanted it to be special but it was not to be!

Christmas was nice but next Christmas will be better!  

So there I was, writing this on 31st Dec 2020, thinking of the many challenges, the sadness, the anxieties, the isolation, the rejections, the fighting back and refusing to be beaten by the monster that is Covid and I've made it - I'm stronger than I thought!

I'd like to see my Grandad soon to see more of Casper and my family members.  

I've also really missed my work colleagues who I really need to thank them for keeping me busy online, always finding the way for us to carry on with our essential work in online design, accessibility, usability and enablement, which over the cause of this pandemic has become even more vital.

I'm hoping 2021 will be kinder to us all, that we can all be a little kinder to each other and that some sort of normality can prevail.

Down the loo or in the nettles at the end of the garden: from the age of 3 my top two destinations to hurlmy detested hearing aids. 

Painfully shy, diagnosed profoundly deaf and devoid of much speech, I took every opportunity in venting my fury at having to wear such instruments. I mean, have you SEEN those things we had to wear back in the 70s? Worn on a harness with huge wires travelling from chest to ears that shouted ‘Look at me, look at me!’.  Not to mention the shocking level and quality of noise that was funneled into my ears.

Of course I have many, many happy memories of early childhood, but those that are sharpest in my mind are those of isolation, confusion and excrutiating shyness.

Nursery: I had absolutely no clue of what was going on most of the time.

Early school: desperately wanting to blend in but oh, the agonising, public shame of having to walk out of the class in front of everybody’s stares for my speech therapy, and then everybody’s questions afterwards. One classmate asking me ‘why was I death’?

My desperation to be a normal part of society was all-consuming and gave me a determination (some would say pigheaded stubbornness) to prove to everybody I was just as good as anybody, and better. With the steady improvement in hearing aids and relentless (and I mean, relentless!) determination of my mum to fight against the system and open up my world, I slowly but steadily started catching up with my contemporaries.  

By the time I was in to my second year at a private girls’ school (small class sizes and fewer teachers to remember my needs was, fortunately for me, a huge help), I was academically successful, ending up with 10 O’ Levels and 3 A’ Levels, was in many of the sports teams, played badminton for Surrey and had a decent circle of friends. With long hair to cover my ears and a good speaking voice, nobody would ever know I was deaf.

Now I turn to another memory: this time me at the age of 15, in my bed not being able to sleep. Praying: please God, please God don’t let me go blind.  Which is weird because I was not, at this point, suffering any loss is sight as far as I knew, it was that my bedroom seemed darker than usual and I couldn’t pick out things in the room I was sure I could before.

Although I didn’t know it at the time, the slow decay inside my eyes had started. My badminton started suffering. I struggled to see at parties. I couldn’t see the same as my friends in the cinema, I became ‘clumsy’.

But it wasn’t until I was 22 that I had any inkling of what was happening. I was having Sunday lunch with my boyfriend’s family one weekend when I complained about my poor night vision. My boyfriend and his father, who were both doctors, fetched an opthalmoscope, spent ages taking turns peering into my eyes and looking up stuff in their medical books, In the end the words Retinitis Pigmentosa came out, and there it was, my bombshell. Delivered to me post roast pork and apple crumble in a sunny living room in leafy Northamptonshire.

The formal diagnosis when it came whilst sitting opposite Professor Bird at Moorfield’s Eye Hospital, was of course utterly devastating for me and my family. The unbearable unfairness of it, the overwhelming fear of my new future was terrible.  Consumed with numbing grief, resentment was at the surface of everything. Why me? I had already beaten a profound hearing loss so why this as well when I need sight so much more than other people?

My parents supported me and loved me, but I knew they felt an enormous sense of guilt about passing on such genes. I didn’t have enough in me to deal with their feelings of guilt and sadness. My parents always fixed stuff, it was frightening to see them and everyone else become powerless.

I was offered no effective, appropriate support for someone of my age and stage of RP. The literature, containing pictures and stories of guide dogs and canes and people twice my age, made me feel ten times worse as I was nowhere near that stage and I threw everything away I soon as it came in the post. 

Completely lost, this was the beginning of my new mountain to climb.

‘Down the loo or in the nettles’ is to be continued.