Mary Holman
Contributing author
Mother of Richard

In 1982 our deafblind son Richard started school at the Royal School for the Deaf in Exeter. We were pleased he was being educated there, but the previous three years since his birth in 1979 had been fraught with worries and uncertainties and delays in diagnosing his many problems.

The school was a very positive place and slowly some of our anxieties began to lift. His teacher was a lovely lady and in conversation one day the charity Sense was mentioned. She thought getting in touch with them would be helpful to us as a family. Writing to them resulted in a visit from Lindy Wyman, a positive wonderful woman, who ran the Family Centre in Ealing. We had now joined the Sense family.

Richard had his first Sense holiday at the Family Centre with his anxious Mum ringing every night (I was reminded of this in a conversation years later). As a family we also went to the Family Centre to help make a video, “Rubella, why worry?” with the actress Jan Francis.

In 1984 my husband Peter decided to start a local branch of Sense to be called Sense South West. This was of course after long consultations with Head
Office and two more wonderful people came into our lives, enter Norman Brown and Rodney Clark. We also started going to the Sense Weekend Away, an annual event which catered for all the family and had a sibling support group, very important. It was then that we met the Beattie family who became great friends of ours. Jessica Hills was another stalwart of Sense who we met at those weekends.

The branch was going well and in 1989 Peter was employed by Sense and things in the South West slowly but surely developed. 25 years on we now have three residential services, an educational day centre and a flourishing Intervenor Service. Lord Clifford has been our patron and supporter for over 20 years and the branch has raised tens of thousands of pounds locally. Peter and our daughter Cathy ran
Sense holidays for many years which were a lifeline in the long summer holidays.

Richard has been a resident at a Sense home in a village near Exeter for the last 12 years, where he has flourished with the care he receives. The staff are wonderful and all deserve medals, there is not a day that goes by when I do not thank God for the love and care he receives and the peace of mind we all have as a result.

Richard is now an uncle and enjoys visits from his very inquisitive niece and sister.

All this resulted from the tragedy of Richard being born deafblind as a result of rubella. I leave you to judge what being involved with Sense has done for us as a family.