A determined Blackheath mum who taught her deaf son how to speak is set to appear in a TV appeal supporting the charity where she now works.

Estelle Gerrett will appear in the film hosted by BBC Radio Two presenter Sara Cox on Sunday (October 14).

The nine-minute appeal will highlight the work of Auditory Verbal UK, a charity that works with pre-school deaf children with hearing aids or cochlear implants to teach them to listen and speak without the need to rely on sign language or lip-reading.

Estelle, who works as an auditory verbal therapist for AVUK, can empathise when she tells families of deaf children that they “do have the ability to learn to listen and talk”.

The mother-of-three's career in working with hearing loss and speech development began when her son Nathan contracted meningitis aged one and lost his hearing as a result.

Despite being told he would not be able to develop speech, Estelle believed there must be a way.

So Estelle, who was already working as a primary school teacher, trained as a teacher of the deaf to teach her son to talk.

She later certified as an auditory verbal therapist and for the past 15 years has coached hundreds of parents to develop their children’s listening, talking and social skills.

Nathan slowly became more confident in his ability to speak and in 2007, aged 20, opted to have a cochlear implant fitted and has now almost finished his training to be an audiologist himself.

Estelle said: “Auditory verbal therapy and giving deaf children the opportunity to reach their full potential is my passion as both a professional and a mother.”

AVUK’s chief executive Anita Grover said: “We hope that Estelle’s story will encourage readers to support Auditory Verbal UK’s appeal so that more deaf children have the opportunity to access our family programme across the UK.”

Auditory verbal therapy concentrates on developing spoken language through listening.

The approach helps the child’s brain to develop listening rather than relying solely or partly on visual cues, and is most effective in the first three-and-a-half years of a child’s life when the brain is in its development stage.

AVUK’s BBC Lifeline appeal will air on BBC One on Sunday, October 14 at 3.35pm. It will be repeated on BBC Two at 1pm on October 17 and will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer.