Dean's story: A long road to my dreams

A long road to my dreams.

Hello my name is Dean Wash and I am Deaf. I work with hard working team at Jack Hunt School supporting deaf students and also I was a former Jack Hunt pupil.

You all probably wondering what I'm doing here and I wanted to share with you all here.

On February 4th 2014 it's my 5th year kidney and pancreas  transplant anniversary.

In 2009 I received a phone call that I  have been waiting for, ( my mum answered the phone of course haha). Oxford hospital has found  a matching kidney and pancreas organs for me.  My dad had to drive in a hurry during a blizzard snow which it  was 85 miles away.  Mum was making calls to family and I was sitting at the back seat feeling in a daze and texting to all my friends that I am on my way to have a major operation.

 Poor my dog Totti was  left him behind at my sisters house but Totti was in good hands with  my sisters family  who looked him for 2 whole weeks which I know he is pain in the bum chasing sister's cats and rabbits.  My brother in law had sleepless nights  due to Totti's loud snoring even tho he was sleeping downstairs !!!  My niece and nephew looked after him by feeding and watering him.

Upon on arrival at Oxford hospital,   I was feeling over the place and wasn't thinking straight as I was in a state of shock and nervous  as I knew the operation was 8 hours long.  When I was waiting for the go ahead for the operation, I have been diabetic since I was 2 years old due to no cause of reason but the doctor said its possible the virus I had at 2 years old has caused my Pancreas to fail. I was thinking what would it really like when I wake up after the operation and not being diabetic anymore and be normal that I never experienced after of  33 years as a diabetics!!!

I will never forget my time during 2 weeks of recovering with some mishaps along the way but I'm glad that I am stronger than I thought and also I am glad I'm very strong person to go through the pain but it was worth it as I got what I wanted  because the kidney and pancreas working straight away as soon the operation was over.



Dean at work

Now after 5 years I'm now working  as a teaching assistant at Jack Hunt School  for me is very rewarding job to help me pay my mortgage and  bills etc. I had holiday last year and booked another one  this summer holiday with my girlfriend which it's my dream holiday..... Route 66 !!!!!!  So looking forward to it driving every miles from Chicago  to Santa Monica.  I will dedicated Route 66  to  the organs family who gave me a kidney and pancreas.

Before my transplant I was on dialysis for about 11 months  and it was painful experience but my nan made sure that I don't get bored at the hospital for 3 times a week which was 3 and half hours each time where I had to travel to Leicester then later on in Peterborough. Nan gave me money  for me to buy DVDs  to watch on my portable DVD player at the hospital on a dialysis machine, I had a great laugh with the nurses  ;) ha. I was on a very strict food and very limited fluid intake which it was very hard.

I'm  lucky enough to have great lovely nurses, doctors and surgeons along the way, they have been very good looking after me despite the difficulty to get interpreters for appointments but I do not blame them or the receptions  as it's managers responsibility to make sure.  I had a supportive family who come along but I have my pride to go on my own and wanted do it myself , to give my mum peace of mind she come along with me and to made sure there was no miscommunication or missing any important information, my dad was a Taxi driver when I needed him, my sister family as a dog sitter.

Transplant is not a cure but it has gave me a chance to live a normal life as much as possible with the side effects from the powerful drugs which I have to take for rest  of my life to keep the kidney and pancreas working and stop it being rejected!.  I will carry on  fighting like  I always have in my life and everyday is a blessing.

There are worse problems out there than I am but I am very lucky to have NHS. Thanks to the organs family who gave me a kidney and pancreas and now I can eat and drink anything.  I'm still learning with the sugars stuff like sweets and cakes.... I still find it so sweet to eat !! I'm a crisps man.

I've been working all my life starting the age of around 8 years old working with dad at building site sweeping up and tidying up also worked in shoes shop, did  2 paper rounds and was a postman, I just love working.

I will just work hard and keep fighting on what ever the problems I will face as I know I'm a strong person and have achieved many things that nothing will stops me. You should do the same and anything is possible.

I hope one day I will able to meet the organ's family to say thank you them for saving my life and they are always in my thoughts as they have lost their loved one so young.

It's important that you have a donor card or register online you could save somebody lives one day as which it has happened to me.

The photo of me and Totti as he has been with me when he was 12 weeks old when I started on  my dialysis machine, Totti was with me there throughout for last 6 years and has been a great company, make me laugh and we understand each other haha... !!

Please remember not to  don't give up and keep trying to be proud of yourself.

Thank you for your time reading this.

DEAF AWARENESS IN LOS ANGELES, AMERICA - Dean's personal account

Universal Studios

DEAF AWARENESS IN LOS ANGELES, AMERICA.

Los Angeles in America, the people are fantastic. I went on holiday for two weeks with my girlfriend who is also Deaf. Hire car is a must in LA.

Great deaf awareness and I was very impressed with their services which they just do it simply with a smile. Not even once they look annoyed with Deaf like some people in the UK. They were very happy to write down on a paper when we requested them due to lip reading can be hard at times because of the accent and different words of meaning. They quickly got pen and paper ready within 2 secs and whereas UK would struggled to find pen and paper!

They always smile and write down and have little conversation with us. Most of them are able to do a basic simple sign language using hand gestures or try to copy our

Disneyland

BSL , they are willing try sign thank you all the time. We always felt self worth as they made an effort, respect us and treat us like any other customers.

We have visited many places like Hollywood, Universal Studios, Disneyland Sea world and Beverly Hill tour.

Universal studios have a system that provide to accommodate for people who need additional support. We turned up on the wrong day for interpreters which is provided twice a week. We paid full at the gate and then went into customer relations to recieve reduce prices due no interpreters and upgraded our tickets to " priority track" which means fast track queue on all rides.

 Sea World also provide interpreters couple days a week but again we went on the wrong day ,we were happy as they gave us half prices tickets. We went everywhere at seaworld and saw killer whales, dolphins, sea lions and so on.

We have visited many big restaurants and they have many TVs in resturants which is mostly sport channels. You have the option to choose which sport u want to watch, for example American football, Baseball and Basketball.

When we tell the waitress that we are Deaf, waitress just smiled and said follow me with a hand gesture to a well lit lights area table and I looked around the room and couldn't believe how many or how big the tv was.

Within few minutes they put on the subtitles on. It's good thing that we didn't even have to ask to put subtitles on which they do it automatically. The subtitles was on every TVs in the resturants and I told my girlfriend that wish it was the same in UK, If it was in UK it would be stressful to ask them to put subtitles on or doesn't have any clue how to put it on!


American people are very helpful as me and my girlfriend were signing to each other at the metro ticket machine trying to work out and to pay for metro ride to the LA city to see the sightings of Hollywood and Beverly Hills.

A lovely lady came to see if we needed help with the machine and we told the lady that we are Deaf. She saw us signing and it didn't scare her at all. We thanked her for her help in sign language and she gave us a thumb up. ;)

We visited at Hollywood and saw many tour buses stands providing tours to Beverly Hills. We went for a well known company and they just refused to get discount price for unable to hear the talking during the tour. So we looked other tour stands and saw a smaller company, we explained that we are Deaf and can't hear the speaker, they agreed to reduce the price to a child price which it about 30% off the adults price and we enjoyed the Beverly Hills tour even we didn't know which famous people houses.

I must admit we got warning from the police on the 2nd day during driving a hire car trying to understand america's road rules near our hotel. I was doing the directions from the sat nav for my girlfriend who was driving. There was a confusion with the sat nav, I wasn't sure if it was allowed do u-turn. We took u-turn and suddenly saw policeman on a motorbike wearing a cool sunglasses with sound sirens and flashing lights! The policeman who stopped us and was able to use basic sign language and understood that we were confused with american driving rules and come from UK. The kind policeman let us off with a warning. My girlfriend told me off for trying to make u-turn mistake. Opppps!


At shopping malls, the shop workers were friendly and helpful as well even the kids were willing to sign hello or thank you to us. We visited a tea shop and the shop lady came to us and signed in ASL (american sign language) talking about different types of teas. My girlfriend bought a tea and chatted with the lady and discovered that she has just started her 1st day and was on her 1st hour in the shop! She was beaming and pleased that we were her 1st customer who bought tea and was able to communicate with us in ASL.

Overall, we had a fantastic experience and enjoyed our holiday in LA.

D.Wash


View of LA evening lights

 Thanks Dean for sharing.

Family Fun Day images

Happy Girl - Angry Bird: Chloe Peacock show's what on offer

Some of the goodies for sale

Smiler! Daniel Monaf enjoys the colouring

Easy does it .. William Palmer working the clay

Here's a few we made earlier: Some of the kids creations

Focus: Leah Monaf adds to her creation 

Sweet ball of lollipops! All for the kids, all for free!

And the winner is: Chloe Peacock's gymnastics medal haul is incredible

Welcome to PDDCS! Charlene Spires and Anna Baker give a warm welcome

And a one, two, three and four .. Music and the Deaf: Performing arts and warming hearts.

Katie Bocking: Jumps out of planes and plays the cello

Chyanne Golding: Jumps out of planes and plays the Cello. 

Keeping the rhythm: Calum MacDonald on the drums
Thanks to the lovely Kirsty D for the communication support

Chyanne Golding and Katie Bocking. Respect.  

Whack it! William Palmer plays the Indian Drums

Indian Dancing

William, Chloe, Katie, Calum and William dancing

Aw! 

Adrian Fisher shows his boy the ropes...sorry sticks.

The cake decorating area proved very popular .. and colourful

Try and say they don't look awesome .. see .. impossible

Chyanne Golding's invention this - using nail varnish to create fantastic patterns on paper. 

A big screen showed off what PDDCS is about all day long. 

Andy Palmer presents John Cheetham with his specially engraved tankard

And gives him a hug

The crowd look on during the presentation

Andy Palmer presents TQ with a gift to thank her for all her help

Andy Palmer presents Jack Hunt School Head Teacher, Pamela Kilbey with a gift.

Nicola Epathite rewards a youngster for her awesome cake decoration

And she runs away very happy!

Chloe Peacock gets a special mention for all her achievements in the gymnasium

And finally .. Andy Palmer springs a surprise on Nicola Epathite and gives her big bunch of flowers to say thanks for everything she does.
 

Thanks To The Runners That Did The Business For PDDCS

A warm thank you to our superb runners who did their amazing bit to raise money for PDDCS at the Great Eastern Run in Peterborough last week. 

Jim Roberts ran the full half-marathon, The Monaf Family and Katie and Chyanne did the fun run and all together raised an incredible £800! That's an awesome amount - thanks so much for your help and dedication! We won't forget it...

Every penny raised goes into events and activities for the city's deaf children. Thanks again and check out our video of the race. 

If you would like to raise money for PDDCS - click here and see how easy it is .. although running 13 miles isn't easy - its easy to get the ball rolling..

Monaf Family fun-running for PDDCS

Dean Monaf Dressed as a big baby

Like our dear friend Jim Roberts, the Monaf family, consisting of Dean, Liz and their two kids, will also be doing the Great Eastern Run (the fun run obviously) to raise money for PDDCS.

Please take a look at their giving page and sponsor them.

Of course - Dean taking part in the fun run also gives us the opportunity to use this picture again!

Click here for more information if you would like to help raise money for PDDCS

PDDCS supporters help raise over £500

Dean Monaf as a baby

A team of supporters were out and about on Saturday in Peterborough city centre and at Peterborough's London Road football ground to raise money for PDDCS and Family Voice.

Chairperson Nicola Epathite and committee members Liz and Dean Monaf shook their buckets in fancy dress with the team of fundraisers, also including members of our youth group and raised over £500 for the two charities! Well done everyone!

If you would like to support PDDCS, click here to find out how

40th Celebration is New High for Society

The Mayor and William Palmer

The society celebrated it's 40th anniversary on Saturday with almost 200 friends at Marshfields School in Peterborough. The celebration, which began at 11am and lasted until 10pm incorporated an exhibition, children's activities including clay modelling, jewelery making, cooking and two performances from Olli the Monkey.

With no space left for more exhibitors, the exhibition hall was bustling throughout the day with representatives from Medel, RNID, Addenbrookes, Audilogy, Police, Fire, Lions International, CDA, Hearing Support Service and NDCS. The event was enjoyed by many from the local adult deaf community as well as deaf children and their families. Peterborough Mayor, Councillor Keith Sharp, spent hours with the children and families and had his face painted as a clown. Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson also mingled with the families and visited many of the exhibition stands.

Chairperson of the society, Nicola Epathite, addressed all the guests as she officially opened the party and spoke of the good work that has been carried out by the society, the current activities on offer to local deaf children and their families and the society's hopes for the future. Nicola also thanked all the volunteers for helping to make the day a success. Nicola's speech was met with enthusiastic applause.

Emotional moments followed as the society honoured two of it's most dedicated servants and the founder of the society. Commemorative plaques for outstanding contribution were presented to current president John Cheetham and former chairperson Sheila Lever for over 20 years service to the city's deaf children. Then, society secretary, Andy Palmer, presented Betty Hay with a special award for outstanding contribution to recognise her four decades of dedication to the city's deaf children, their families and for founding the society back in 1971.

To recognise their contribution in the organisation of the 40th celebration, presentations of commemorative clocks were also made to Sally Walker, Headteacher of Marshfields School, vice chairman and committee members Dean and Liz Monaf and chairperson Nicola Epathite - without their tireless hard work, the party would not have been possible.

From 7pm, the disco began and prize raffle took place. Mr Will Peacock winning the star prize of a signed picture of England rugby captain Martin Johnson lifting the world cup in 2003.

More pictures and news from the 40th Celebration to follow...