Olivia Gemmell ~ Biography
Diagnosed as profoundly deaf at 8 months. Specialist doctors told her parents that she would never speak or go to a mainstream school. Olivia’s parents immediately fitted her with hearing aids and enrolled her at The Shepherd Centre.
Olivia attended mainstream schools including Loreto Kirribilli where she completed her Higher School Certificate in 1998. She represented her school in many different team sports, gained the Gold Duke of Edinburgh and was the recipient of the School President’s Award for “Participation and Contribution to School Activities”. On leaving school she joined Palm Beach Surf Life Saving Club in Sydney.
After graduating from University of NSW, Olivia moved to London and worked for a fashion/lifestyle magazine which included work assignments in New York. During this time she travelled throughout Europe, Central America and solo in Africa.
Olivia was one of 25 out of 500 applicants in the state to receive the Churchill Fellowship award at Government House, and the only 2007 recipient of The Sir William Kilpatrick Churchill Fellowship, honouring the man who is considered to be the father of the Churchill Trust in Australia. She has recently returned from six weeks overseas study to USA, Britain and Scandinavia. Here she gained valuable, worthwhile experience from existing mentoring programs for young deaf people.
Olivia believes that deafness attracts the right type of person as a friend. This was certainly the case when she met Thomas, with normal hearing, in 2001 - he is now her husband. Thomas has said that one of the things that initially attracted him to Olivia was her strength of character and the way she handled her hearing loss.
At 28 years of age, Olivia is motivated to help young deaf people achieve their life dreams and ambitions and to face the future with confidence and faith. It is for this reason she started Hear For You in 2007.
Her motto is that with the right mind set, anything is possible.
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