About Us
Background
Affiliates
Amanda Drake-Worth
Amanda Drake-Worth is the founder of Happy Signers.
She is married to Marc and has three lovely children, Jonathon, Ami and Aaron.
Amanda’s passion for baby signing and helping children and adults is phenomenal as she wants to make a difference to their lives and enhance communication between children and adults alike. This originates from when her daughter Ami was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate and Amanda was told she would have a problem talking. She says:-
This resulted in Ami being top in her class for English at primary school but Amanda says:-“I was absolutely distraught and spent many hours going over and over the key words with my daughter and continuously reiterating what was so important to her language development”.
as her daughter was born in 1992 long before BSL baby sign language was available.“if only baby sign language was available then it would have been so beneficial”
Amanda has gained considerable knowledge and experience within the deaf community as she worked as a volunteer for the Hearing and Sight Centre and also as a committee member for Plymouth Deaf Children’s Society. Amanda has an active role with the Cleft Lip and Palate Association (CLAPA) as she is a parent contact for the South West, a Happy Faces Co-ordinator in Plymouth and surrounding areas and also a New Grants Commitee National Member to decide how best to distribute CLAPA’s funds. Amanda is also a Health Champion for Plymouth Community Health, a Health Buddy for Nina Davey CSV Manager for BBC Radio Cornwall. She says “I just love supporting and inspiring people from all walks of life”.
Amanda is also a distributor for Forever Living Products the largest aloe vera producer and supplier in the World and is always looking for team players who have the enthusiasm to change their lives forever and make a difference to the people around them. Please see www.foreverlivingfriends.com for details.
JAMIE LOMAX
Amanda is proud to introduce Jamie:
Jamie’s interest in British Sign Language started while she was in school taking her A levels. She joined a course in Plymouth and found that she had a true passion in BSL and decided that she wanted to learn as much about the deaf culture as possible.
She passed her BSL Level 1 and BSL Level 2 and then took a small gap as she has two beautiful girls. Using her knowledge of BSL she decided to teach her children sign language from birth.
This turned out to be one of her best decisions as her eldest daughter was shortly diagnosed with glue ear meaning that she couldn’t hear correctly and she was able to use sign language to communicate.
As her children became older she decided she wanted to continue learning BSL and decided to take her BSL NVQ 3 which she passed in 2012. She says “using BSL has allowed me to make some great friends within the Deaf Community and I have been an active member of Plymouth Deaf Association”.
Jamie has also been part of the trustee committee of the Deaf Association too for the past 5 years which has enabled her to learn so much within the community.
Jamie’s desire and passion for sign language continues and her dream is to eventually become an interpreter.
Marc Drake-Worth
Marc is Amanda’s husband and is a volunteer for Happy Signers. Marc is extremely talented in many aspects of the business and his love and passion for woodwork over the last 40 years has resulted in him kindly offering to build bespoke, handcrafted, sensory musical instruments for not only for our babies to enjoy but also to supply as products for our business, together with bespoke handmade pond yachts too as our passion is to fuse together families to enable them to enjoy quality time together, to inspire them and to change their lives.
Marc is also a volunteer for Happy Sugarcraft part of the Happy Signers Family and he supplies the business with beautiful handcrafted birthday cakes, christening cakes, wedding cakes including bespoke hand crafted cake toppers. Details of his work can be found at www.facebook.com/happysugarcraft.
