The Telethon Speech and Hearing Institute turned their playground into a purple fun zone for their annual Family Fun Day on Thursday afternoon.
More than 89 families and 100 children joined Darcy Tucker, Brady Grey and Lisa Webb at the institute where the kids practiced their footy skills and had photos with the Freo players.
Freo midfielder Darcy Tucker who is an ambassador for the Telethon Speech and Hearing Institute said he was grateful to be part of the day.
“It’s great to see all the families and their kids here,” Tucker said.
“They go through a lot of hard times and it’s a good initiative by Telethon Speech and Hearing to have this day and see all the kids enjoying it.
“For me it’s very important to give back.
“As AFL footballers we get stuck focusing on our football a bit too much, and it’s very rewarding to see families and kids who have troubles with hearing and speaking to go through their life and learn and develop so much.”
The Telethon Speech and Hearing Institute aims to bring awareness to its expertise by helping children with hearing loss and speech and language development.
The club’s partnership with the institute stemmed from development coach Marc Webb and his wife and Fremantle AFLW player, Lisa Webb and their three-year-old son Ollie.
Just three days after Ollie was born, he was diagnosed with bilateral hearing loss, and around fifteen months later, with Pendred Syndrome.
“We’ve been here for about three years now,” Lisa said.
“We come to weekly speech lessons and hearing testing regularly with Felicity and the gang down here at Telethon, and they’ve been absolutely fantastic in helping Ollie stay on track.
“From pretty much not being able to hear at all to being able to hear whispers and the sounds of every day life that we take for granted has just been a real joy to watch.
“It’s fantastic to see how much growth you can see in them over the years.”
Telethon Speech and Hearing aims to help children like Ollie, enabling them to grow up with as few restrictions from their condition as possible.
“Today’s a wonderful event for our families,” CEO for the Telethon Speech and Hearing Institute, Mark Fitzpatrick said.
“Having the support from Mark and Lisa Webb and their son Ollie gives us a wonderful connection with the Dockers.
“All the families who attended today will be heading along to game on Sunday to watch Freo play at Optus Stadium.
“Being able to then provide those tickets to all the families and the kids to give them that little bit of uplift that’s often so hard, is something that we’re really lucky to have.
“To see so many kids running around here today making so much noise is really good for an organisation like ours”.
