(Left) Lias reacts with joy as he can hear with his new hearing aid for the first time. (Right) Kevin Frost with Alfredo, the first boy he got hearing aids for back in 2004.(Bottom) Frost with his extended family in Mexico. PHOTOS SUPPLIED

Since being diagnosed with Usher’s Syndrome in 2002, deaf-bind athlete Kevin Frost has accomplished a lot in his life. He’s competed internationally as a speed skater and a cyclist, winning a number of medals, and he recently won the Canadian blind golf championship.

But none of those accomplishments can compare to the role he’s played in helping 28 Mexican children hear again.

Frost was vacationing in Cancun in 2004 when he met Yvonne Costello who was doing mission work among the poor in area villages.

“She noticed I was wearing a hearing aid and we struck up a conversation,” recalls Frost. “She told me about these deaf kids who couldn’t afford hearing aids and she asked me if there was any-way I could help her out.”

During the ensuing years, Frost has raised funds to purchase hearing aids for 28 kids. At first he did it on his own, but more recently he’s enlisted the help of local Lions Clubs after becoming a member of the Orléans Lions Club in 2007. As impressive as that is, it’s even more impressive when you consider that a pair of hearing aids can cost upwards of $2,000.

Frost last visited Mexico in 2017. He made a point of meeting each and every kid who had received hearing aids.

“It was a very humbling experience. None of these kids could hear anything before they got their hearing ads, so it totally changes their lives. They’ve able to hear again. They can communicate with their family and friends, but the most important thing is that they get to go to school and get an education,” says Frost.

Some of the money Frost has raised over the years has also gone to speech therapy lessons because most kids who can’t hear also can’t speak, especially if they’ve been deaf since birth. One of the kids Frost helped needed a Cochlear implant.

“Lias was two when he got the implants in 2012,” says Frost. “But two years ago his mother got in touch with me and said his body was rejecting them, and that he got an infection so they had to take them out.”

Despite the infection, Lias could still use a hearing aid in one ear, so Frost went to work earlier this year to raise the money needed for the hearing aid with the help of the Lions Hearing Committee of Ontario, the Orléans Lions Club, the Cumberland Lions Club and the Sudbury Lions Club.

“It was a real team effort and I can’t say enough about my fellow Lions,” says a grateful Frost, who also got some help from the Mexican Embassy in Ottawa. “Usually it costs a lot to send a medical device to Mexico, but they stepped in and offered to deliver it to Lias’ village for free which was really great.”

The company that makes the hearing aids also gave them a discount.

Lias received the device earlier this month and for the first time in years he was able to hear his parent’s voices and the other sounds from his surroundings.

Frost is hoping to return to Mexico soon to reunite with Lias and the other kids he has helped over the years who have all become part of his extended family.

(This story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our local business partners.)