Each month we invite an inspirational or outstanding deaf role model to share their story. This can be from what they’ve learnt, to what they wish they’d have known as well as their best deaf tips.
Our role model this month is Damaris Cooke. Damaris is currently Head of Relationships at SignVideo, Football TV presenter and occasional translator. By a young age, she had already travelled the world and won two Deaflympic bronze football medals! You can watch the full interview in BSL or read the English transcript below.
Please tell us a little about yourself? (career, family, achievements etc.)
Hello, my name is Damaris, I am the Head of Relationships at SignVideo. I am also a TV presenter on Sign Up Into Football which is a programme entirely in BSL hosted on TNT Sports. I also do ad hoc work as a translator for CK (an American Deaf artist) – creating BSL translations of her work. I’ve also been to the Deaflympics three times and have won two bronze medals!
Sofia 2013 – Bronze
Did you grow up in the Deaf Community or come to it later in life?
I was born into a deaf family, so I attended deaf schools, all of which were oral which meant I had to speak all the time. If school were finished for the day or the teacher looked away, we would sign furiously amongst ourselves. Later once I had finished 6th form at Mary Hare School, I felt pressured to go to university but I did not know what I wanted to do. Because I loved sport, I decided to study Sports Studies at Liverpool Hope. When I got to university, it was a real culture shock because growing up and going to deaf schools, I had been in a bubble with deaf friends and teachers who were deaf aware.
At university, I struggled with poor quality interpreters and communicating with my peers, some could use gesture a bit but overall communication was really tricky. After one year at university, I decided it was not for me due to the culture shock as well as having to move from London to Liverpool, so I quit and returned to London.
Luckily at the time the BBC had a scheme which focused on getting disabled people into work through paid work experience placements. They were for a three-month period after which the individual and the department would confirm if they were happy with the role and it would become permanent. I applied and was really lucky to get a placement with BBC Sport which suited me perfectly! I worked as a Broadcast Journalist, supporting the team by uploading live photos and videos to their website – I stayed in this role for two years.
When did you first decide you wanted to play football professionally? How did you make it a reality?
How did I get involved with the Deaflympics? I think I was quite lucky as I was born at the right time because up until then there had been no women football at Mary Hare School. I thought this wasn’t fair as I knew loads of girls who were good at football, so I begged the PE teacher to set up a team! They agreed and established the team, and we entered into local cup competitions, where we ended up winning! This was really good, so we ended up becoming a permanent addition to Mary Hare.
When I was around sixteen, the first GB Women’s football team was established. I was encouraged to try out for the team, it was the first time I’d ever gone up for something like that, showing again how lucky I was. I was then picked for the team, ended up going to the Deaflympics in Melbourne which was another stroke of good luck as it was the first time women’s football was included in the Deaflympics.
Later on England, under the FA, established the first deaf women’s football team which I put myself forward for and joined the team. Looking back, I’ve always been lucky to be included in all these teams. Later I ended up becoming a captain myself until I retired at the age of thirty-two.
You were part of the bronze medal-winning team at the Deaflympics. What was that experience like?
When I went to the Deaflympics in Melbourne, it was an amazing experience. It was the first time I had been involved in an international competition and the first time I had flown so far away from my family. I didn’t know what to expect, whether the other teams would be good or not so good because it was the first time women’s football had been on that stage. I had no idea what to expect until I arrived.
We ended up staying in a five-star hotel in the middle of Melbourne, all in our team GB kits, and I felt like a real professional. We had minibuses taking us to the matches, and I watched loads of fans travelling from England for the games. The weather was lovely, and from start to finish I really enjoyed myself every single day.
My father and my brother later heard that I had made it through to the bronze medal playoffs and they wanted to see me win it. They ended up booking last-minute tickets and flew over to Australia and I had no idea. They surprised me completely.
On the day of the bronze medal match, I was very nervous. I was in the changing room getting ready, and the match itself was really hard. We ended up beating Denmark 2–1, and I was so relieved. Once we’d beaten them, someone nudged me on the shoulder and told me to look into the stands. I looked over and was so confused to see my father and brother there in the crowd, waving and cheering! I burst into tears, ran over to them, and gave them a big hug.
I never expected them to come. My dad only stayed for three days before flying back, even though it takes about a day to get home! My brother stayed longer, so we celebrated for a week before he flew home too.
Melbourne 2005 will always be a really emotional experience for me not just for winning the medal but also because my family were there to surprise me.
Melbourne 2005 – Bronze
You then captained the GB Deaf Women and England Deaf Women teams during your football career. What was your journey like up to being captain? What qualities are needed?
Being the captain for England GB means you have to think constantly about teamwork, everyone must feel part of the team. It also takes skill to understand everyone’s different ways of learning and doing a task. For example, if I shout at one person, they might be fine with it, while another person might be very sensitive and I could upset them. I might need to sign something to one player more gently, but another player could find that patronising!
So I have to adapt to each person by knowing how to communicate with them, what motivates them, and how to turn their nervous energy into something positive. I’m a good talker, so I make sure everyone knows that we are one team. Football isn’t just eleven players; the subs are also involved so everyone has to pull together.
My strength is definitely teamwork: getting everyone involved and knowing how to connect with each individual.
Now you work as a TV presenter alongside your role as Head of Relationship. Why are both of these roles important to you? How do you balance them?
These days I work full time as Head of Relationship for SignVideo and I’m also a TV presenter for Sign Up Into Football for two days a month so it’s easy to balance those roles. I’m drawn to both roles because of the focus on access, whether it’s making sure information is accessible or that people feel included. I find the work quite similar because as Head of Relationship, I have to go and meet lots of different people and see how we can work together and how I can support them and how they can support us in return. It’s very important that we work together rather than being exclusionary. I have to talk to lots of people and internally look after my staff to make sure their training is good and that they feel valued and included.
TV presenter for TNT Sports’ Sign Up Into Football
As a TV presenter I just have to translate the information into BSL so I’m using my personality when I interview. People think it’s just a case of asking questions back and forth but you have to really go with the flow. Maybe you might ask someone what they have for lunch and spark a conversation from that to get them to relaxed and start a natural conversation. Some people are surprised they might expect the interview to be boring, but they end up finding it quite intriguing and they end up wanting to learn sign language. I have to match the person I’m working with. You get a real variety of people, so you have to try and work with them, for example if someone is finding it full, you have to try and excite them by asking different questions that suit them. I love both jobs.
Who inspires you and why? (In the deaf community or otherwise)
Who inspires me? My mum, she worked for a biochemist for 6-8 years before becoming a mum. She wanted to put her career first, which in those days was not the done thing as people were expected to finish school, get married and have children. My mum was adamant she wanted to work and ‘live her life’ first so she travelled a lot including to America and worked until she felt ready to have children. She was a real feminist, also she was one of the only people who took an interest in my football – it didn’t matter if it was a small insignificant game, she was always asking! She saw me win my last bronze medal in Bulgaria.
She inspires me because she was also a brilliant people person, she was so good at connecting with people and asking after their families. She is so genuine and interested in others, similar to me (though I might be a bit nosey!) I am very interested in other people and I’m really sociable, the same as my mum. She is definitely my biggest inspiration!
3 top tips for deaf people? (e.g. everyday life/learning/communicating/ socialising/travelling etc.)
My three top tips:
Number one – live life! Life is short, I know everyone says that – things like you only live once, life is short, but I am so lucky that football has allowed me to travel the world. By the age of twenty-one I had been to Australia, and when I came back I had already travelled the world for six months! Football has helped me to travel, and I am so grateful because I got the chance to do it early and learn so much from different cultures. I feel like travel helps you learn more about life and yourself as a person. So travel and do the things you’ve always wanted to do, don’t put stuff off until next year, do it now! If you’re nervous, you have to go for it. So, number one is live life.
My second tip is if you’re not happy – do something about it. Some people wait for something to happen and then they make a change, but you need to be the one to make that change for the better. You can’t wait for something to happen, you have to make things happen so if you’re not happy with your work or in your relationship or with something else you need to do something about it.
My third tip is something that everyone says but I think it’s still important – be kind. It’s very easy to judge or criticise others but when we are nice to people and we accept their differences the world can become a better place.
One more tip that I would add, especially in relation to work, is that it’s okay if you don’t know what you want to do! I didn’t and I still don’t entirely know! It’s really important to just have a look at lots of different roles. For example, when working at BBC Sport I realised something was missing and I wanted to be involved in the Deaf community by helping, giving back and promoting access.
So I joined SignHealth – literally right at the bottom of the career ladder! I was helping older people wipe their bums, so you can see I really started from the bottom. I was helping them wipe their bums or giving them medication or helping them with personal care. You’re probably scoffing at that, but it was a really interesting job! I got to interact with different people and they would tell me their stories. I think that experience really helped me later in life. I got promoted, then moved to a different department, then a different organisation. I became an advocate then moved again, all the time slowly working my way up.
I think starting from the bottom is really important because you learn so much from working at a grassroots level and it will help build you up as a person. So don’t be afraid to have a go at a not-so-great job or to try something temporary as part of your journey, because you might meet someone that will help you flourish. And it’s OK if you don’t know what you want to do, just give a basic job a try.
To read more inspirational role model interviews, take a look here. If you would like to be an ally to the deaf community and learn sign language, check out our courses.
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