Mum So Proud Of Deafblind Son’s Eastenders Debut

A mum whose five-year-old deafblind son has made his acting debut in Eastenders has said she is “so proud” of him and she hopes it will “break down barriers” for disabled children.

Harvey Hind, from Clitheroe, Lancashire, appeared in Wednesday’s episode of the BBC One soap, playing Arlo, a pre-school boy who is registered blind.

His mother Kimberly said: “I hope Harvey featuring in EastEnders shows other disabled children, especially those who are deafblind, that they can achieve anything.

“Harvey loves being in the spotlight but for us the most important thing will always be raising awareness and breaking down barriers so every disabled child gets the same opportunities as anyone else.”

She said: “Harvey did amazingly at the filming, I’m so proud of him. There were four cameras on him but he took it all in his stride.”

In the episode, Arlo and his mother visited Lauren Branning and Peter Beale’s house, where Arlo plays with their son, Jimmy, who was revealed to be blind in a storyline last year.

Arlo’s mother is shown to give Lauren advice on raising a blind child.

Away from the television storyline, when he was about four weeks old, Harvey failed his newborn screening hearing test, and his mum noticed a flicker in his eye around the same time.

The family paid for a private consultation and he was diagnosed as blind at three months old.

He walks using a red-and-white striped cane, which is used by deafblind people, and uses British Sign Language (BSL) to communicate.

He also wears cochlear implants which give him access to sound.

Kimberly said she found the first two years of Harvey’s life difficult as she struggled to communicate with her son, and had to leave work to care for him as he was becoming increasingly distressed attending a mainstream nursery.

Disability charity Sense eventually assigned a specialist in working with deafblind children to the family, which Kimberly said was “life-saving” for her.

She added: “I was so anxious when I found out Harvey was deafblind, so his character’s storyline resonated with me a lot.

“I didn’t have any experience with disability and I kept imagining the worst-case scenarios.

“Luckily, with the support of organisations like Sense, Harvey is now a really happy child who is eager to learn, loves exploring and has a cheeky personality.”