Christmas Cheer: Ava's cards raise funds for Deafblind charity

A talented partially sighted teenager from Broughton, near Preston, has designed three Christmas cards to help raise funds for the Deafblind UK charity.
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Despite her disabilities, Ava Jolliffe, 15, who is deaf, has impaired vision and uses a wheelchair, is also an accomplished artist.

This year she was invited by Deafblind UK to design cards for the charity.

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She painstakingly created the seasonal images on her iPad Pro and was delighted to take up the challenge. She uses her fingers to draw and works on small highly pixellated parts of each image at a time.

Angel Christmas card design by Ava Jolliffe for the Deafblind UK charityAngel Christmas card design by Ava Jolliffe for the Deafblind UK charity
Angel Christmas card design by Ava Jolliffe for the Deafblind UK charity

Her mother Laura said: "The Christmas cards are so lovely. I really want them to do well for Deafblind Uk as they're such a fantastic charity. Ava's put her heart and soul into making the cards. Each one took her about 10 hours because of her visual loss. She's put a lot of love into it."

Laura said Ava was also determined to show someone with disability n her pictures, so ensured a choir singer in one of her cards is in a wheelchair.

Laura added: "People assume if you're deafblind you don't have any other disabilities, but Ava is in a wheelchair. A lot of people have complex needs. Ava is classififed as blind but she does have some low grade vision left."

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Ava has a rare condition called riboflavin transporter deficiency (RTD) also known as BVLT (Brown Vialetto Van Laere syndrome.)

Christmas choir card designed by teenage artist Ava Jolliffe for the Deafblind UK charityChristmas choir card designed by teenage artist Ava Jolliffe for the Deafblind UK charity
Christmas choir card designed by teenage artist Ava Jolliffe for the Deafblind UK charity

Naomi Dainty, Marketing Manager of Deafblind UK said: "Ava is just so unique and so inspirational because of her age and the fact she's deafblind. We support people who are deafblind. Ava is going through this every day and it presents daily challenges. It's just brilliant to be able to show that somebody who is deafblind is able to produce work of this standard."

The cards can be purchased from the website deafblind.org.uk/xmas or here and cost £4.99 for a pack of nine and they are also available online on Etsy. Each pack contains contains three each of her different designs.

Last year Ava had an exhibition entitled Facial Awareness at the Larder Cafe in Preston. For more on the exhibition see here .

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* Next week Ava is due to have wrist and soft tissue release surgery on her hands at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital.

Card designed by Ava Jolliffe featuring a snowman wearing gloves in the green and purple Deafblind UK charity coloursCard designed by Ava Jolliffe featuring a snowman wearing gloves in the green and purple Deafblind UK charity colours
Card designed by Ava Jolliffe featuring a snowman wearing gloves in the green and purple Deafblind UK charity colours

* The NHS website advises: "Deafblindness is a combination of sight and hearing loss that affects a person's ability to communicate, access information and get around. A deafblind person won't usually be totally deaf and totally blind, but both senses will be reduced enough to cause significant difficulties in everyday life."

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