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Sarah, Barney’s mum shares his cochlear implant journey and incredible rugby success. 💙🏉 “Barney was born profoundly deaf with no known cause and received AB cochlear implants at 15 months. From the very start, he embraced sound—his switch-on was full of fascination, not fear. "He attended a mainstream primary school and quickly showed a love for physical activity (including being the first to climb the ‘non-climbable’ fence!). Football came first, but tag rugby in Year 5 sparked something bigger. At 12, after months of persuasion, we let him join a local rugby club. With the right advice and protection—and inspired by Jodie Ounsley—there was no stopping him. Since then, Barney has gone from strength to strength. In 2024 he was selected for Bracknell’s first team, earned a place in Bath Rugby’s development squad, and progressed into their Academy. Now 6ft 5, he’s training intensively while studying at The Henley College’s elite rugby programme, playing for Ealing Trailfinders and training with Deaf England U18s. We are so proud of everything he’s achieved so far. His dream is to become a professional rugby player—and we can’t wait to see what comes next.” Thank you to Barney and his family for sharing such an inspiring story. 💫 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳. 𝘌𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯'𝘴 𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦. 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘤𝘩𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶. #AdvancedBionics #LifewithABCIs #LifewithABCochlearImplants #CochlearImplants #ABCochlearImplants