Neville Donates $32k To Deaf Football Teams

Deaf News: Gary Neville donated $32,000 (£20,000) to Great Britain's Deaf Football team to send the squad to the Deaflympics.



LONDON, UK -- Daily Mail: Gary Neville has paid £20,000 out of his own pocket to book Great Britain's Deaf Football squads their places at the Deaflympics.



GB Deaf Football do not receive public funding and made an appeal for financial assistance last month as they tried to put together enough money for the deposit which would guarantee their spot at next year's event in Samsun, Turkey.



The organisation needed to raise £17,750 before December 1 but what appeared to be a tough task melted away when Manchester United legend Neville stumped up the whole lot, with interest, after being alerted to the cause on Twitter.



Responding to a tweet from United fan Jimmy McBride to the Premier League and Football Association asking for their support, Neville wrote on Sunday: 'I will do it if they won't'.



And he has followed through on his promise, with GB Deaf Football posting a screenshot of their justgiving website on Wednesday which showed the Sky Sports pundit's donation had landed in their account.



They wrote: 'It's official. Thank you @GNev2 for donating £20,000 to send us to the Deaflympics 2017.'

It's official. Thank you @GNev2 for donating £20,000 to send us to the Deaflympics 2017. Just £105k to go ⚽️🇬🇧🏅https://t.co/oO5fBehvW5 pic.twitter.com/9FfD7ElxJN

— GB Deaf Football (@GB_DeafFootball) November 2, 2016

GB Deaf Football need to lay on training sessions and warm-up matches in their preparations for the Deaflympics, as well as finding funds for flights, hotels and physiotherapy.



While Neville has paid for the deposit, the group still need to secure a further £105,000 to ensure both men's and women's squads can take part next summer.



Neville is the second leading football personality to make an important pledge to British Deaf Football in the space of 12 months.



In 2015, Jack Butland made a £5,000 donation to help send the women's team to this year's World Cup.



At the time, Butland said: 'I've learnt a lot from major tournaments, experiences I'll never forget, I'd love for you to experience the same.'



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University Killing Deaf Kittens For CI Research

VIDEO: Deaf News - Students outraged after Australian university made six kittens Deaf for a year before killing them for cochlear implant research.



VICTORIA, AU -- Daily Mail: Australian universities are under fire for using cruel animal testing practices as part of various medical and scientific studies.



But one Deakin University student is calling on the prestigious institutions to end their cruel practices.



Alexandra Sedgwick, 24, has kickstarted a campaign against her own university after she suspected Deakin to be using fetal pigs cut from the bodies of pregnant mothers in scientific studies.



Ms Sedgwick organised a meeting on Friday morning with the Dean of the faculty of science, engineering and built environment, to put her case against the university's current animal testing policy.

But the vegan activist said her message was difficult to get across as she was refused any support in the meeting.



'It was an intense experience. I had requested to bring in people as support which the Dean didn't allow,' Ms Sedgwick told Daily Mail Australia.



Ms Sedgwick said the university branded her view as 'unique' and unsupported as she was not allowed to bring in her support team.



Other Australian universities also use cruel animal testing practices for scientific and educational purposes.



The University of Melbourne made six kittens Deaf before killing them as part of a medical study with the Bionics Institute while Monash University made eight healthy baby monkeys brain dead as part of a brain injury study, Fairfax Media reported.



Despite Ms Sedgwick's efforts, the Dean stood by his position that animal tissue was more effective in scientific studies than non-animal alternatives, and insisted they had already adopted a cruelty-free stance.



'If they were a cruelty-free university, why wouldn't they agree to stop using animals? It doesn't make sense to say we have all these animals but then say we're not going agreeing to stop,' Ms Sedgwick said.



'For me this was never about Deakin, it was about Victorian universities and institutions and I had hoped Deakin would be the first to change,' she said.



She acknowledged the difficulty of being up against a big organisation with extensive resources but hopes to further expose animal cruelty in science through her social media accounts and by connecting with like-minded people.



'I've had hundreds of people contact me and hopefully they will be willing to tell their stories.



'I hope to connect with Victorians, students, researchers and interns who are brave enough to tell the truth about this, as universities are all quite secretive especially in the research department,' she said.



Over 900,000 animals are killed for scientific purposes in Victoria alone, which has been increasing every year for the past 10 years according to the most recent data from 2014.



Ms Sedgwick said this does not include animal organs purchased from slaughterhouses.



While she described the mood as 'devastating', Ms Sedgwick said she will not stop pursuing the issue and urges all students not to participate in dissection.



Trevor Day, Deakin's executive dean of the faculty of science, engineering and built environment, told Fairfax Media that there was 'very limited use of live animals in teaching and training.'



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Deaf Baby Hears Mother's Voice For First Time

VIDEO - Deaf News: Deaf Idaho baby hears her mother's voice for the first time goes viral on social media.



BOISE, ID -- Daily Mail: This is the heart-warming moment a Deaf baby heard her mother's voice for the very first time.



Born profoundly Deaf, Annabelle Lawrence received two hearing aids on Wednesday and when they were turned on she couldn't hide her excitement.

When her mother Sarah Jo asked her if she could hear, the three-month-old broke into a massive gummy smile



Sarah Jo, from Boise, Idaho then asked again and Annabelle's eyes opened wide as she realized she was listening to her mother speak.



Sarah Jo said: 'Everything has been so overwhelming. 'To be able to tell Annabelle that I love her and know she hears me is very emotional. 'You could see how excited she was to be able to hear. I can't stop talking to her.



'Whenever I'm doing the dishes or putting a wash on I give her a running commentary. 'I want her to be able to catch up on the last three months.'



The video also shows the audiologist from Idaho Elks Hearing and Balance Center, Boise, continuing with tests to determine to what level Annabelle's hearing is working. When she heard clapping, she started to look a little perplexed and turned her head a full 90 degrees searching for the origins.



Annabelle's hearing aids are temporary as she will have cochlear implants put in when she is nine months old. Her current hearing aids enable her to hear sufficiently as the auditory nerve in her brain is functioning perfectly.



Sarah Jo added: 'At the moment she is really tired.



'I think hearing for the first time means her brain is working extra hard to understand what is happening. 'She is napping much longer than she did before to recuperate. 'But when she's awake she is so much more excited.'



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