Who We Are

Philip is the Honorary Vice President of Deaf Sports First, having previously been a founding director and the first Chair.

He was born deaf in Manchester and was lucky enough to get support through the local world-renowned Department of Audiology and Education of the Deaf at Manchester University. This was under the guidance of Professor Sir Alexander Ewing in the mid 1950’s. The support he received from that Department enabled him to succeed in getting a place at Mary Hare Grammar School for the Deaf, achieving academic success from which he had a rewarding career in local Government offering 35 years of public service. He was a Lead Officer in Environmental Health and a member of many specialist groups both regionally and nationally. He was also Trustee for nearly 20 years (being Chair for 10 years) of Deafness Support Network (formerly Cheshire Deaf Society), a regional charity that provides a number of services to D/deaf people and their families in Cheshire.

Honorary Vice President and one of the founding Directors of Deaf Sports First.

Having been involved with GBDF (Great Britain Deaf Football) as Chair as well as Deaf Sports in general for many years, Martin has first-hand knowledge of just how difficult it is to get the required support and funding for Deaf athletes, sportsmen and sportswomen to reach their full potential and go to international tournaments.

Hence, Martin was keen to ensure action was taken to alleviate this situation and got together with Chris Beech & Sharon Hirshman and approached Ken Carter & Philip Brown to set up Deaf Sports First (Deaf Sports First), so that they could make a concerted effort to relieve the pressure on our Deaf sportsmen/women.

A keen sportsman, Martin and his wife Abigail, also a keen sportswoman, have 3 deaf children all of whom have been involved in Deaf sports. Martin has worked for the Prudential for over 33 years in various roles, mainly in Project Management and brings a wide breadth of business experience and Deaf sports community knowledge to Deaf Sports First.

Henry has been involved in grassroot deaf sport for many years, having played for Derby Deaf Football team and Black Country Deaf football team. He was a treasurer and Chairperson for Black Country Deaf football team. Henry has represented England Deaf rugby. He had coached rugby to deaf children. He is a trainer for Royal Association for Deaf people and have been working in the deaf field for over 20 years and have been involved in many work to improve access for deaf people. He has been involved in regional Council groups, NHS groups, Police Equality groups, and lots of other groups to ensure that deaf people’s voice are heard.

Henry joined team in the summer of 2023 and he his passion is to ensure that deaf people have access to sport and appreciate the value of Deaf Sports First role to make it possible.

Throughout his 65 years’ involvement in teaching and learning, Ken has developed a particular expertise in Deafness and SEN (Special Educational Needs), due in part to having a deaf daughter.He has been highly entrepreneurial helping to set up a number of charitable companies/companies limited by guarantee, namely: Deafax, Breakthrough (deaf/hearing) Integration Trust (now DeafPlus), FYD (Friends for Young Deaf People), AACT (Access-Ability Communications Technology), AACT4Children; Deafkidz International; DisabledChild-India; Deaf Aspirations; Decibels/Decibels International, Ability2Access, EASiTEC (Easy Access Solutions for Inclusion, Technology, Education and Communication); GOALS4LIFE Global Online Assisted Learning & Support) & all of which are operating locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. His school career took him to Millfield, an enterprising International School, having been awarded a Sports scholarship and he is now a Distinguished Old Millfieldian. He was in the Royal Marines on National Service and travelled extensively. During his academic career, he studied at Loughborough University, London University and the University of Surrey. He was delighted when he was made an Associate Professor at the National Centre on Deafness, California State University, Northridge, Los Angeles; been given a Gold Medal as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and entitled to be a Member of the Victory Services Club. His teaching and lecturing appointments have taken him to Public and State Schools ( First teaching appointment was at the Oratory School), the Berkshire Education Audiology Service, City Literary Institute Centre for the Deaf, Bulmershe College of Higher Education now the Institute of Education, University of Reading where he was the Research Director of the Reading Consortium Support Services. At the same time, he was responsible for setting up the National Network and European Bureau of Deaf Students. One of his many attributes has been to network extensively throughout the world with individuals associated with Digital Technologies, Politics, Music, Companies/Foundations and Academics who have helped enormously to enhance his pioneering work mainly in the field of Innovative Technologies and Inclusion. Probably the most influential person has been Dr Vinton Cerf, the architect/inventor of the Internet and Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist who is now Deafax’s Honorary President.

By helping to set up Deaf Sports First, Ken hopes to “make a significant difference” to the lives of deaf & hearing sportswomen/men in the UK and worldwide. Please see SPORT, LIFE EXPERIENCES & KEN CARTER

One of the founding Directors of Deaf Sports First

Sharon has participated in many different sports, representing GB at the Deaflympics in Women’s Football and Basketball. She attended the Taiwan Deaflympics as a Liaison officer for Great Britain, was one of the original trustees for UK Deaf Sports and involved in its foundations until she voluntarily withdrew due to maternity leave. She is a qualified social worker, has worked in that area for 20 years and is currently working in the Dual Sensory Loss service.

Sharon was one of the nominations for the ‘Unsung Hero’ category in the Deaf Sports Personality of the Year 2015 as well as being a nominee for the GB Deaf Women’s Football squad and for Team Sports of the Year 2015. She understands the processes and structure that are needed when working and dealing with Sport UK, Sport England and the English Federation of Disability Sport. She is aware that one has to work with the National Governing bodies in this country so as to enable them to work with deaf participants in hearing/mainstream clubs and organisations. She sees Deaf Sports First playing an important role in ensuring that young deaf people get all the support they need at whatever level they participate. She is looking forward to the “Challenges Ahead”

Since February 2016, Riccardo Mancuso has been skilfully developing and leading the implementation of a strategy to shape future business opportunities for Decibels and Deaf Sports First (Global Online Assisted Learning & Support). He is continuing to develop a comprehensive 5-year business plan comprising both transactional & transformational elements to ensure stakeholder buy-in and establish a robust & transparent governance model.

He has over 15 years of experience in a blue chip environment, providing a broad, strong foundation of best practice solutions to tackle operational challenges. Riccardo works with a strong sense of urgency to achieve quality results, quickly.

Outside of work, Riccardo loves to explore and discover new things. His camera follows him wherever he goes and his computer boasts a decade of photos of architecture, people and cultures.