Julie Emslie
Orla's fundraiser for The Archie Foundation Battle of the Badges
Fundraising for The Archie Foundation
Story
Orla has been lucky enough to be selected to be mascot for Battle of the Badges 2023! This is a charity football match where members of the incredible emergency services will battle it out at Cove Rangers Football Stadium. Orla will find out soon what player she will be mascot for, and is very excited to have been chosen to do this.
Orla regularly attends RACH, and The Archie Foundation play a huge part in making those visits more fun. From playing in the park outside, to getting a chapter book to take home after her appointment and more recently having the amazing Johanna Basford in to work her magic on the walls, filling it full of bright beautiful designs to make everyone smile. Orla made a suggestion that there are never any characters in comics or books with hearing aids, so Johanna included a fish with hearing aids, Orla can't wait for her next appointment to see this in person!
Orla has a moderate hearing loss, she wears hearing aids in both ears. We only found out about this two years ago, so she is undergoing further testing to try and establish when and how this happened. We don't know if this will be a progressive loss, but we just take each day at a time, and Orla embraces her hearing aids, how much they help her and she is keen to spread the word about if how it feels to have a hearing loss. She has a brilliant class, and her friends are very supportive, she shared a PowerPoint to her class about what being deaf means. Orla has some hearing with out her hearing aids, but it's much harder in school or busy areas. When she has her hearing aids in it makes everything louder, so when she does her Cheerleading for example, the music would be up 100% so she keeps her hearing aids out. She lip reads really well, and will look for visual clues too, like in her swimming lessons, and she adapts to life so well, we are so proud of her.
This wee video shows what a hearing loss can sound like
Any support you can give her is amazing, to help her and thousands of other children and young people in this area.
A bit more about The Archie Foundation....
The Archie Foundation was formed in 2000, to support the build of a new Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital.
The charity started with a simple mission – to make the difference for local sick children, providing much-needed extras not already catered for by the NHS.
1 in 3 people under the age of 16 visit a children’s hospital in the Grampian region each year.
That’s nearly 35,000 children and young people. Equivalent to ALL the children living within Aberdeen City!
That’s a LOT of children who were it not for The Archie Foundation would face a VERY different hospital experience.