Emily Howlett: Being Charlie

The time is nearly upon us, dear Readers, when we can collectively breathe a sigh of relief; Charlie will soon be back to return to his post as Editor. The Limping Chicken will once more return to the management of someone who knows what they are doing, and I will once more return to writing about crisps and nonsense.

During my brief time as Guest Editor, I have come to one or two realisations which I would like to share with you, before Charlie comes back.

The Limping Chicken is hugely popular. As a Deaf news site, it is also pretty unique. There really hasn’t been anything quite the same before, and, when you think about it, that’s remarkable. How did the deaf community manage for so long without a reliable source of news, interviews, opinions and awful chicken puns?

Sometimes it takes a good egg to look at the world and realise what exactly is needed to make it better, and then to get off their nest and see that something is done about it. In creating the Limping Chicken earlier this year, Charlie Swinbourne did exactly that.

And it isn’t easy. I can vouch for the fact that there will always be one more thing to do, even though you were supposed to log off two hours ago and take the dog out or start scraping spaghetti from a child’s hair. There are endless emails, tweets, requests and reports flying in to be edited, plus the actual writing side of things…

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as Guest Editor (thank you all for putting up with me so well), but I am only too happy to hand back the torch to the man who started it all, and carries it on so well.

So, I’d like to say a huge thank you to Mr. Charlie Swinbourne, and to his family for allowing him to work so hard on this website which brings the Deaf community that little bit closer together. It is appreciated, and we would have shown you this high level of appreciation with a vast box of chocolates, but your Guest Editor accidentally ate them.

And please share this among yourselves quickly before he comes back, gets all embarrassed and deletes it. Or worse; decides to take off on another holiday…

The Limping Chicken is supported by Deaf media company Remark!, provider of sign language services Deaf Umbrella, training and consultancy Deafworks, the National Deaf Children’s Society’s Look, Smile Chat campaign, and the National Theatre’s captioned plays.