CMV Support Group (UK) Newsletters

Hello everyone, wishing you all a great Christmas, and a Happy New Year. Here is the latest news from Carmen.
http://www.cmvsupport.org/uploads/Dec-07-CMV-News.doc (MS-WORD)

More recent and older newsletters can be seen on the UK parent CMV Support group atwww.cmvsupport.org

About Carmen Burton
Carmen Burton – Chairperson UK Congenital CMV Association

After leaving college I did some voluntary work at the local Deaf School and worked in the clerical departments at two local hospitals. I also studied British Sign Language at night school.

I was then offered a job as an Educational Care Officer (ECO) in a Special School supporting children with a wide range of severe learning and physical disorders. I continued in this line of work for about the next eight years until our daughter Natalie was born in 1993 with symptomatic CMV. She was very ill and had many of the side effects of cCMV including Profound Deafness, developmental delay and behaviour issues.

When Natalie was about two I went back to work again - as a part time ECO supporting Deaf children in a local mainstream Primary School Unit. The stress of working with Deaf children (some with additional needs) and also looking after Natalie with all her difficulties became too much. I now work for my father as a part time engineer – fabricating metal gates, railings etc. This is ideal because I can work round all of Natalie’s appointments and when I’m feeling stressed I can legitimately throw pieces of metal around or bang a few hammers!

Natalie had a Cochlear Implant in 1996 and I co-founded the Midlands Region of CICS (Cochlear Implanted Children’s Support) Group in 1999, of which I am still Coordinator and a Trustee of the main group. I am also on the Committee of our local DCS. (Deaf Children’s Society)
I took over the CMV Association in 2005. Since then membership is growing steadily. We now have a website and two Awareness Posters and we aim to become a registered charity. Our aim is to provide help, advice and support for families affected by cCMV, to put them in contact with others, to promote Awareness and to aid research.


Carmen Burton 31.01.08