In this time Luca and Anne-Marie have formed a strong relationship.

Luca received a cochlear implant in 2011 and today, accesses sound bi-modally, meaning he uses a cochlear implant in one ear and a hearing aid in the other.

“Luca is a fantastic young person with a bright future. He has remained positive throughout his entire cochlear implant journey and is an example of what children can achieve,” Anne-Marie said.

“I have had the pleasure of seeing Luca, mum Monika, and dad Anthony for some time – to see Luca grow and continue to achieve his goals is very rewarding.”

And it seems Luca and achievement go hand in hand. Below, Luca shares his story.

Well done, Luca!

My name is Luca D’Ambrosio and I am 11 years old. I was born with hearing loss and didn’t get my cochlear implant until I was almost 3 years old.

Professor Gibson put my cochlear [implant] in. My mum and dad say that he is our hero because I couldn’t hear much or speak much before I had my cochlear implant surgery.

Two and a half years ago I changed schools and I have been working really hard together with my school teachers, Anne-Marie my audiologist from RIDBC and my therapist Olivia.Luca receives his award

Some days are extremely hard as I get really tired, but I push myself to keep going because I want to work for Marvel studios and be an actor in the future.

On the 9th of December 2019 I was selected to receive the IB PYP award (International Baccalaureate, primary years programme) at my school end of the year celebration night. I was pretty nervous to stand up in front of the huge crowd, but it felt amazing and all the effort was worth it.”

This news article was created prior to 22 March 2021 when NextSense was Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children (RIDBC).