Sue Bevans

My name is Susan Bevans and I was born in the village of Rockbeare, just outside Exeter. I have lived in Plymouth since I was first married in 1978, and now reside in the Plympton area of the City.

I became deaf at 3 years of age and am profoundly deaf today. I have three sisters, two of whom have been profoundly deaf since birth. My deaf sisters attended the Royal School for the Deaf in Exeter. One was a boarder there.

However, I attended the Partially Hearing Units at St Margaret Infant School and Westhill Secondary School in Torquay. Because of the distance involved in travelling between my home in Rockbeare and Torquay, I lived in Torquay during the week with a foster family and went home at the weekends.

At both of these schools the classes were mixed: both hearing and deaf children, (about 5 deaf children per class). The mixed class really helped with my education and it was also of great benefit in assisting with the development of my speech and lip reading skills.

I have to admit there were difficulties sometimes that resulted in my missing what the teachers were saying – they, of course, were not deaf and did not use BSL. If only they had been able to sign, who knows what else I might have learnt and what I might have achieved?

In 1973, aged just 16, I left school and returned home to Rockbeare. Later that year, I started work as a national cash register operator employed by Broseley Homes. I remained in their employ until I married in 1978.

In 1980, I started work as a Visual Display Unit Operator at Texas Instruments in Plymouth, but left to start a family in 1984.

I have a son and daughter. Sadly, my daughter is severely disabled and as a consequence of her disabilities I stayed home for 20 years to care for her. She is now resident in a specialist care home.

I was divorced in 1992, but have been with my partner Steve for the last 16 years. Steve is a carpenter employed at Princess Yachts International plc.

Between 2004 and 2006, I studied for and achieved a NVQ II in administration. I then worked in a voluntary capacity for the Dame Hannah Rogers School in Ivybridge, at Honeybourne House and Bungalow and at Pounds House, Plymouth, where I used these newly learnt skills, together with my BSL skills, to help other deaf people.

Since 2007 I have been qualified with the British Deaf Association to teach BSL at Introduction and Foundation Level.

I wanted to start my own school teaching the British Deaf Association BSL Curriculum in Plymouth because there is a present lack of this facility. This also presents me with new challenges and goals to achieve.

I am pleased to be starting this new and exciting chapter of my life with my good friends and colleagues Paul Craven and Jean Lethbridge. We hope to promote the use of BSL in our area which I know will provide deaf and hearing people with a greater understanding of each other, and so help to unite these two groups of people within our society.