A deaf girl from Altrincham has made a new friend through a “pioneering” pen pal scheme that’s currently running across the UK.
10-year-old Emma Groves said that she decided to join the Pen Pals Project – which was initially set up by the National Deaf Children’s Society as a response to the isolation deaf young people were experiencing during lockdown – because she wanted to make friends with other deaf children who were going through similar experiences as her.
Since being set up back in 2020, the Pen Pals Project has helped more than 200 deaf children to create new friendships, feel less isolated, develop their communication skills, and most-importantly, view their deafness with more positivity.
The “pioneering” scheme is free for all deaf children and young people between six and 18, and youngsters who take part are matched with another person of a similar age, interests, and communication preference to them – whether that be through British Sign Language (BSL), Signed Supported English, or even speech.
While many of the youngsters either email their letters or record videos in BSL for each other, plenty of others have chosen to go down the traditional pen pal route and handwrite messages or draw pictures to send to their new friends.
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And this is exactly what Emma chose to do.
Emma – who lives in Altrincham with her parents Andreina and Mike, and her seven-year-old brother Sammie – was born deaf, but has always enjoyed reading and writing and has aspirations to become a writer when she is older, so it’s easy to see why she jumped at the opportunity to write to her new friend through the scheme.
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The Pen Pals Project has helped more than 200 deaf children to create new friendships / Credit: djupress
The keen writer says she was very excited to let her pen pal know about her school, her likes and dislikes, and how she had been taking part in after school sport activities with her deaf friends.
Emma’s mum Adreina said having a pen pal was especially useful because her daughter was concerned about what to expect at high school, and luckily, her pen pal already attends high school, and was able to lend a hand in reassuring her that it was less stressful than she might have imagined.
“Emma loves meeting new people,” Andreina said.
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“This project was an opportunity for her to connect with someone facing similar challenges, and she enthusiastically replied to every message, and at the end of the project, she asked for the communication with her pen pal to continue.”
Emma added: “My teacher suggested I might like to take part as she knows I like reading and writing and I’m always happy to meet other people. It was amazing because the letters were about things we love doing, and we found out the subjects we like and don’t like at school, and how we both like video games.
“I carried on with her because I really like making new friends, and hopefully one day we can meet in person.”
As mentioned, the National Deaf Children’s Society set up the Pen Pals Project during lockdown to help connect deaf young people, and they hadn’t intended on keeping it running past then, but after the demand for the scheme was so high, the charity has decided to carry it on.
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Speaking on the success of the scheme, project coordinator Amy New said: “It’s really taken off and deaf children are already telling us they feel more connected and more positive about their deafness [so] it’s become a really important service for lots of deaf children and it’s made a real difference.
“We’ll provide it for as long as they need it.”
Featured Image – National Deaf Children’s Society
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‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Benson Boone has announced a headline gig in Manchester – and it’s a big one
Danny Jones
American pop sensation and unrivalled king of unnecessary front flips, Benson Boone, has just announced his first-ever headline Manchester arena gig as part of a new arena tour.
The solo artist and acrobatic chart-topper has seen a meteoric rise in the US and, as is usually the case across the Atlantic, he’s become increasingly popular over here too.
Benson may have performed here in Manchester before as part of the 2024 MTV EMAs and for a small show at The Deaf Institute, but now big fans have the added Boone of getting to watch a standalone show at one of Europe’s leading indoor entertainment venues.
Announced on Friday, 30 May, the 22-year-old will be making his way across the pond from Washington for a limited run of UK concerts, with a date at Co-op Live arena being one of just five dates.
Extending his ‘American Heart Tour’ ahead of the release of his eponymous sophomore record, with this autumn leg, Co-op Live will mark his individual visit to 0161.
The Grammy-nominated artist has earned several nods of recognition already for his first album, Fireworks & Rollerblades, which was released just last spring.
He has been described as among the current trend of male singers who fit into the American Idol and ‘Voice audition pop’ genre (a term recently coined online), along with the likes of Teddy Swims, Shawn Mendes, Alex Warren and others.
Regardless of the slightly tongue-in-cheek term, he’s become a huge hit around the world and landing him is still a big coup for the venue that has already welcomed similarly massive pop contemporaries like Swims, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo and more.
In case you’re wondering just how big a deal he is over in the States, even this early in his career, his domestic headline dates sold out in seconds, quite literally…
The last time he visited Co-op Live was to perform at the most recent MTV EMAs
Benson Boone is coming to Manchester on Monday, 27 October and will be playing just two other British venues: The O2 in London (two nights) and the Utilita Arena in Birmingham.
Safe to say you don’t want to miss this one if you like soaring vocals and lots of flipping.
General admission tickets go live at 10am on Thursday, 5 June, but Co-op Members can gain access via the arena’s official pre-sale window from the same time on Tuesday (3 Jun).
Emily Sergeant -
7th July 2022 
