A Whitland woman has won a coveted ‘Big Idea’ award after creating an app for deaf and hard of hearing people.

Twenty-six-year-old Sian Stephens, last month came up trumps by winning the London Met’s Big Idea Challenge - an annual pitching competition, open to all students and recent graduates, which seeks to unearth early stage ideas and the passionate individuals behind them.

Sian who has experienced difficulties over the years herself with hearing, says that the ‘Hear Me Out’ app is designed to bridge the deaf community together.

“It’s an accessible, and inclusive app that will allow the deaf community, hard of hearing individuals and people with cochlear implants to have a place in which they can go to in order to meet similar people with similar struggles,” she explained.

“It will have a host of special features, a chat messaging platform, and there will be deaf-friendly links to events, captioned cinema listings, theatre shows with BSL interpreters etc.

“All in all, it will prove to be an accessible place to help deaf people like myself in a world that is typically inaccessible for deaf people,” she continued.

“I signed up with an idea that I’ve had for such a long time and to be able to see that people believed in my idea is just heart-warming.

“For a long time, I’ve wanted to create this app and now I feel that taking part in the Big Idea Challenge has helped me prepare to make it a reality. I’m now finally able to make my idea come to life and help the deaf community.

“There’s no other words I can use to describe how it feels but I’m just thankful for the support that everyone has shared and those who helped me during my pitches.

“I’m very happy and I am looking forward to my app helping so many deaf people like myself,” added Sian.

London Met Student Enterprise tweeted: “Congratulations to Sian who was crowned our Big Idea 2021 Grand Champion with Hear Me Out - and well done to all of our uni and college winners, and thank you to everyone who entered this year!”