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BOLTON’S DEAF COMMUNITY SAYS THANK YOU

Charity worker reveals how the National Lottery funding helped transform his life.

Imagine growing up without the ability to communicate with others and being unable to understand their world.

After being born with Waardenburg syndrome, a genetic disorder that left Philip Bridge profoundly deaf, this was Philip Bridge’s childhood.

“My family didn’t know sign language, so they’d be talking to each other and I couldn’t join in,” Philip says. “Mum did her best to talk to me, but it was hard for us to understand each other. I wanted to participate but felt left out.

“I ended up playing on my own a lot – I was frustrated, and really struggled. I went to a mainstream school where making friends for me was difficult, so I’d just play football with the kid next door.”

Philip, now 42 years old, started learning British Sign Language at age 16. This was when his blossoming began.

“I was learning sign language at Bolton College when a friend recommended that I join the Bolton Deaf Society (BDS),” He said. “It was quite a shock for me at first, as I hadn’t had much connection with the Deaf community before, but it was fantastic to suddenly make friends. We’d go out as a group to pubs and other Deaf clubs and feel safer together.”

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