From left, Lance, Isabel, 2, and Chris Cairns. Isabel and Lance both have cochlear implants. Photo / Sarah Ivey
Chris Cairns is no stranger to standing up for what he believes in, and now he's back on New Zealand shores, the cricketer is doing his bit for the country's deaf community.
He and his family - wife Mel, daughter Isabel, 2, and son Noah, 7 months - arrived back
in Auckland three weeks ago from Australia, where Isabel was born deaf.
Like her granddad, cricketing great Lance Cairns, the toddler has had life-changing cochlear implants, an operation that was state-funded in her mother's native Canberra.
Had she been born in her dad's homeland she would have qualified for an implant in only one ear.
"We were lucky that Issy was born deaf in Australia," said Chris Cairns, who will be donning a colourful top for Loud Shirt Day on Friday, the annual appeal of The Hearing House and the Southern Cochlear Implant Paediatric Programme.
