Matthew Chapman, reading on behalf of his late cousin Chris Chapman

This piece I am about to read out was written by Chris in 2005.

As well as challenges to my seeing and hearing, I also experience an impairment of the co-ordination of my body movements…
Soon after I moved to this residential care home where I live (not Sense’s) my frustration levels were extremely high. There was little understanding about how essential it is to set my surroundings up so I can continue to look out for my own safety at the times when the care organisation and its people feel they need to focus their attention more on other necessary tasks that they know also have to get done too so as to enable the survival of the home. Things went on like this for a couple of years and then Sense was invited into the picture by my family and I. Sense has greatly helped me in my life by: 
1 Arranging and supplying more and more one-to-one help.
Net result: reduced frustrations for everyone, including myself.
2 Assessing what my sensory and movement needs actually are, as opposed to what groups of people unwittingly suppose them to be.
Net result: I am receiving support that is tailored to suit me, and contributing something new to the understanding of medical and social organisations so that they can do their job better than before, which helps everyone! As we assess what my sensory needs are, I learn more about what my remaining senses are capable of. With this learning I can guide my impaired movements with more accuracy than
they would otherwise have, greatly surprising many doctors.
3 Sense and its people have given me plenty of opportunities to help them. Especially with enabling some of their members to better understand what new doorways could be opened up for myself and other deafblind people to go through into brave new worlds to explore and map out for humanity.
Net result: I am now a steering committee member of Sense’s new See Me Hear Me project, which aims to equip, encourage, enable and empower deafblind people themselves to directly campaign about issues that matter from their own unique
perspectives. Through the internet I have developed my own networks of contacts within the worldwide communities of coaching and training professionals, and therefore developed many new friends. I have attended and actively participated in several international conferences of deafblind people and those involved in working with them – more friends!

And the game of life is not over yet. There are still greater things to come – all due to the assistance of Sense!

[ Applause ]

And justone other thing, just before I finish. I'd like to read this out which is a reaction to the book from Kevin Appleby from the Calvert Trust up in Kielder who Ann talked about earlier on. Because Kevin couldn't be here, these are his words.

This book provides real and tangible experiences from both sides of the coin. Often the medical profession can give you broad details and examples of how a particular condition could affect an individual. But as we all know, this is seldom the case in the real circumstances that prevail on individuals and their families. As well as being educational and a support to those who have family members with similar issues, this book provides an incredibly useful training resource to help those professional staff who may be tasked with the care of any individual to understand how that person feels about their particular disability. I know that our staff here at the Calvert Trust having read the book have all commented on the knowledge that they have gained and asked the question "why aren't there more types of this book available?".

On a personal note, I have found much consolaton and understanding having read the stories. These accounts have helped me better understand and cope with my somewhat sudden disability, something I have personally struggled with. I would echo the foreword and say that the book does indeed "resonate with the current experiences of many families", and I know that it will provide them with important information as well as providing a degree of comfort and understanding. I would also like to thank Ann and John Chapman, who along with many others have made this publication possible. Without the commitment of these individuals, this book would not now be available to us as the great resource it actually is. [ Applause ]