This is a charity now close to my heart. My granddaughter was born profoundly deaf and is now coming on leaps and bounds through the use of her cochlea implants. Although she does not require a hearing dog at the moment, perhaps in the future for independent living this charity could really help. My son has sponsored a hearing dog for 2 years now and I'd now like to give something back to the charity by taking park in The Great British Dog Walk 2024 at Balmoral Castle on Sunday 2 June2024.

Please give what you can and below is a little information about the charity below, thank you.

Hearing Dogs For Deaf People train dogs to alert deaf people to important and life-saving sounds they would otherwise miss – such as the smoke alarm, alarm clock and even a baby's cry. Being aware of these – thanks to a hearing dog – makes a real difference to deaf people’s lives, and can even save them.

But their clever canines do so much more than alert their partner to sounds.

Deafness can be a very isolating disability. A hearing dog provides lots of love, companionship and emotional support. This is really important as many of the deaf people who come to them for help have felt very lonely and isolated. Their amazing dogs help deaf children and adults to leave this loneliness behind and reconnect with life.

As if this wasn’t enough – hearing dogs have saved countless lives in their important role; fire alarms sounding at the dead of night, alerting them to the shouts of a loved one who is in peril, even saving their deaf partners from potential car thieves!

Dogs are known for their loyalty and love – and we see these valuable traits in a hearing dog every day.

They match thousands of adorable dogs with deaf people since their humble beginnings in 1982. At the moment, they have over 1,100 working hearing dog partnerships across the UK. They are also helping thousands more through their other personalised services, such as their Helpdesk and support groups.

The cost to train and support each hearing dog throughout their lifetime is £40,000 – so they rely heavily on their amazing supporters to help them change lives. It really is all down to people, who give up time, effort and money to help them create many life-changing partnerships and provide other important services. But there are still so many deaf people and people with hearing loss whom we can help.

A hearing dog and their deaf partner need to be carefully matched to ensure the partnership will work well.

So many things need to be taken into consideration – for example, whether a person lives in a big city or tiny hamlet, whether they have cats or other pets that a dog would need to get to know, what their individual needs are, what their social life, work life and family life are like, how active they are, and many other things. They then need to assess which dogs we have in training, what their strengths and weaknesses are, what they like and dislike, what their personalities are like, and which dogs would be the best match for different people.

They take the matching process very seriously to ensure we get it right - and create partnerships that will last.

They are so passionate about training these amazing dogs, and it’s a real team effort. From volunteers who look after their hearing dog mums and dads, to volunteer puppy trainers, and the volunteers and staff who deliver our Hearing Link Services, everyone in the Hearing Dogs family has an important part to play.