A STEVENSTON dad has made a remarkable gesture to his son, as he looks to support him through his life after being born profoundly deaf.

Stuart Miller ran the Herald through his journey after the birth of his son Rory, who is now two-years-old.

He said: “When the wean, Rory, was born, he was profoundly deaf. At first he tried hearing aids, appointment after appointment and just wasn’t getting any response.”

Following this, it was discovered that Rory would need cochlear implants to be able to hear in any way, and Stuart didn’t want his son to be alone in that journey.

That led to the remarkable gesture of getting his own implant, though Stuart’s comes in the form of a tattoo.

He explained: “I was looking for ideas, and I didn’t want something that no one was going to see, I want to try and normalise it as much as possible for him.

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“Make him feel like he isn’t alone with it, just kind of like ‘look, I’m the same as my dad or my dad’s the same as me’.

“It’s just to show him support, obviously you’ll support him anyway but ‘just get that on your head, make it more recognisable’.”

Stuart also wanted to add his note of thanks to Sean Cahill at PFG Tattoo, who completed the job.

“He absolutely nailed the design,” he said.

Since his tattoo was shared on social media, he has received a lot of attention for making such a gesture, though Stuart says that’s not what it’s about at all.

He commented: “It got a lot more attention than I ever thought it would have.

“I didn’t put it up for the attention or anything like that, it was just a lot of folk saying it was brilliant.”

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It wasn’t just online he got a good reaction, Rory himself was delighted to see his dad’s new look.

Stuart continued: “He (Rory) was buzzing, he’s got two implants, I only got the one side tattooed, so when he seen that he was turning my head round and looking for the other tattoo, as if to say where is it!

“He’s telling me I’m naughty cause he thinks I’ve stole his.

“He’s chuffed with it, yesterday he woke me up trying to play with it and take it off my head!”

It has also been a real learning curve for Stuart and his family over the last few years, learning so much about deafness having had no prior experience with it.

He urged anyone who is going through similar to reach out.

Stuart added: “If anyone has ever got any questions about them, or if I can ever help anyone that’s in the same situation, just come and ask me, or contact me.

“You do find it hard to ask people, I know I did!”