An outstanding Auditory Verbal UK advocate has been awarded for her inspirational communication skills.

Beatrice, 15, from Lincolnshire, hosted Auditory Verbal UK’s Power of Speech event at the House of Commons in June.

She spoke passionately about her personal experience in front of an audience of MPs, organisations and families of deaf children and offered advice and support to younger participants.

Her family first visited AVUK when Beatrice was 16 months old, only to learn that their baby had no understanding of sound. Her parents took on a 180 mile round trip to our Bicester office but after just one hour with an auditory verbal therapist Beatrice began to respond to her name.

Mum Kate said: “It took just an hour. Witnessing my profoundly deaf daughter react for the first time to my voice was a miracle.

“Every other week we travelled a 180 mile round trip to attend play sessions teaching us, the parents, how to help Beatrice gain age-appropriate language.

“Her progress was meteoric. By the time she was five, Beatrice was able to graduate from Auditory Verbal UK and start school with age-appropriate language, on a par with her hearing peers and with unbelievably clear diction.”

Beatrice is now thriving in mainstream secondary school and recently turned the tables on Jeremy Paxman during a live interview in front of an invited audience of philanthropists, charitable foundations and industry experts.

Anita Grover, CEO of AVUK, nominated Beatrice for the Inspiring Communicator Award, awarded by third sector information organisation Charity Comms.

She said: “Beatrice has demonstrated that her hearing loss is no barrier to achieving. “She is an outstanding young ambassador for the charity and a role model for young deaf people and their families.”

The inspiring teenager collected her award at an event in Farringdon, east London, on November 29.