York: Partially deaf girl competing for world karate title

A partially deaf girl from North Yorkshire has set her sights on winning a world karate championship.

Tillie, who is eight and from York, has been learning martial arts for four years and has already won 17 medals.

She is feeling "confident" about taking part in the World Karate and Kickboxing Commission championships in Portugal later this year.

Tillie can only hear in one ear due to the condition microtia but doesn't let it hold her back from her passion.

She told Radio York she enjoyed the sport "more than 10 out of 10".

And although she finds competing in competitions "pretty hard", she still practices three times a week, with her favourite move involving jumping up and doing a full spin to push her target away.

Tillie also described how she was "half-deaf as one ear is fully closed while the other is open" as although she still has the whole ear, there is no hole in it.

"It is really rare to get but I got it," she added.

Her father Richard explained his daughter was confirmed to have microtia after she was born by an emergency Caesarean, and had to stay in a special care unit for a week afterwards.

He said: "It was our first child so we were very scared and thought it was something we had done, which was obviously very upsetting at first.

"But as Tillie has grown up, she now does everything perfectly with what she has got, so if anything she does things better than most people as she's only got that one side of her ear.

"It was daunting, but there are things you can do such as reconstruction that can be done when she grows up if she wants that."

Richard went on to share how proud he was of Tillie as "we first just wanted her to learn self-defence but she's come along so far with it and met so many friends".

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