My Story

Next Sunday, I'll be pushing myself through the London Marathon to support the impactful work of Speech and Language UK, directly benefiting children like my daughter, Poppy.

Poppy faces daily challenges in communication and understanding others, but the progress she's making with their support is truly groundbreaking.

I hope others, like Poppy who were not able to be supported by mainstream education, can access the specialist educational environments provided by this charity and its cause.

The funds raised will benefit Poppy's special school, The Meath in Ottershaw, Surrey, where children from miles around attend to overcome developmental hurdles caused by their struggles with communication and understanding.

Jane Harris, Speech and Language UK’s Chief Executive said:  

“Right now, nearly two million children in the UK are struggling with talking and understanding words. These children rarely get an audience with politicians but their lives and their futures matter. We want the next government to know what action they need to take so that the 1 in 5 children with speech and language challenges can face the future with confidence.”  

Making an impact

For children who struggle to talk and understand words, their whole lives are affected. Our recent report, Listening to unheard children, found that they are:

• six times more likely to be behind in English at age 11
• eleven times more likely to be behind in maths at age 11
• twice as likely to have a mental health problem
• twice as likely to be unemployed as an adult

These figures show the scale of the challenge in front of us. We believe that every child should be able to get speech and language support when they need it so they aren’t left behind.