My name is Stuart Imrie. I was born in London on the 5th of October 1976. When I was born I didn't breath properly. My lungs were very flat, so I nearly died. The doctor put a tube into the left of my chest and through my lung. He pumped air into it to help me breath properly. He put me in a special care box.

I was born deaf. My mother and father didn't know about it. When we went shopping the fire alarm rang. Another babies were crying because the alarm was so loud. My mother and my father looked at me but I was sleeping in the pram. They wondered why? They took me to the doctor and they found that I was deaf. They were very shocked and worried about my deafness.

My father worked in the army and travelled the whole world with my mother. I was sent to boarding school. My mother was very upset about this, as she didn't like leaving me. They both wanted to see me growing up. Eventually, my father left the army and he became a policeman. We all moved to Edinburgh in Scotland. My mother continued her nursing.

 When I was five years old, I started school at Donaldson's School for the Deaf. My mother and father were not happy about that because they couldn't understand my sign language. They moved me to another school where I started to use my voice and I was taught to speak. (next page)