Christopher Campbell, of Long Ditton, Surrey, was inspired to run the 2017 London Marathon for Auditory Verbal UK following the support his family received when two of his children were diagnosed as profoundly deaf.

Christopher, and his wife Claire, discovered that their daughter Alice was profoundly deaf when at 18 months old, she wasn’t making the same developmental milestones as her older brother, Joseph. Mother, Claire, said:

It was devastating, finding out that Alice was deaf to the extent that it would probably have a life-long impact on her. We suddenly realised that every time we held Alice close to us or even talked to her before she was born, she hadn’t heard us.

Thanks the specialist early-intervention programme at the charity Auditory Verbal UK, Alice has learnt to listen and talk. Alice is now thriving at a mainstream school, has many friends and is excited about her future.

Following Alice’s success, when their third child, Oliver, was born in 2012, also with a profound hearing loss, the decision to go down the same path was easy.

Oliver started mainstream school in 2016 and is doing well.

Whatever it is that Alice and Oliver were born to do on this earth, the fact that they are deaf will never be a limiting factor in that.

Of the marathon, Chris said:

I want to do everything I can to help AV with their vision that all deaf children should have the opportunity to listen and speak as equals alongside their hearing peers.

I will never be able to repay them fully for what they have given my family but if, by dragging my ageing and creaking body around the streets of London for 26 miles I can help AV to transform the lives of other deaf children then I will have made it some of the way to saying thank you.

You can sponsor Chris by following this link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/one-man-on-anotherroad