Danny Matthews grew up in North Georgia. He attended schools in Athens, Georgia. He was active in the JROTC program and was on the high school soccer team. At the age of 16 he was diagnosed with a medulloblastoma - brain cancer. After removing the tumor, Danny suffered a massive brain hemorrhage - knocking off the synapses in his brain that allow him to balance when he walks, leaving him wheelchair bound. Danny had to relearn how to do things like read, write and hold a fork. After chemotherapy and radiotherapy, Danny beat cancer. With the love and support of his family, Danny persevered. He was able to graduate college, marry the love of his life and become a father. Shortly after his son was born, his hearing completely went away. Profound hearing loss due to the chemotherapy drug that helped him beat the cancer. Now he’s been presented with the opportunity to get cochlear implant surgery. This would allow him to be able to fully enjoy the life that he fought so hard to keep. A chance to have meaningful conversations with his son and his wife. To be able to sit down and enjoy a movie with friends. To fully participate in Sunday School lessons. The things you never realize how much you’ll miss — until you can’t hear them anymore.

A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted neuroprosthesis that provides a person who has moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss with sound perception. With the help of therapy, cochlear implants may allow for improved speech understanding in both quiet and noisy environments. A CI bypasses acoustic hearing by direct electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve. Through everyday listening and auditory training, cochlear implants allow both children and adults to learn to interpret those signals as speech and sound.