Mother hopes deafblind son will ‘break down barriers’ with EastEnders role

A mother has said she hopes her five-year-old deafblind son will “break down barriers” for disabled children when he stars in an episode of EastEnders.

Harvey Hind, from Clitheroe, Lancashire, made his acting debut during Wednesday’s episode of the BBC One soap, where he will play Arlo, a preschool boy who is registered blind.

His mother Kimberly said: “I hope Harvey featuring in EastEnders shows other disabled children, especially those who are deafblind, that they can achieve anything.

“Harvey loves being in the spotlight but for us the most important thing will always be raising awareness and breaking down barriers so every disabled child gets the same opportunities as anyone else.

“Harvey did amazingly at the filming, I’m so proud of him. There were four cameras on him but he took it all in his stride.”

In the episode, Arlo and his mother will visit Lauren Branning and Peter Beale’s house, where Arlo plays with her son Jimmy, who was revealed to be blind in a storyline last year, with Arlo’s mother giving Lauren advice on raising a blind child.

When he was around four weeks old, Harvey failed his newborn screening hearing test, and his mother noticed a flicker in his eye around the same time, and the family paid for a private consultation and he was diagnosed as blind at three months old.

He walks using a red-and-white striped cane, which is used by deafblind people, and uses BSL to communicate. He also wears cochlear implants which give him access to sound.

Kimberly said she found the first two years of his life difficult as she struggled to communicate with her son, and had to leave work to care for him as he was becoming increasingly distressed attending a mainstream nursery.

Disability charity Sense eventually assigned a specialist in working with deafblind children to the family, which Kimberly said was “lifesaving” for her.

She added: “I was so anxious when I found out Harvey was deafblind, so his character’s storyline resonated with me a lot. I didn’t have any experience with disability and I kept imagining the worst-case scenarios.

“Luckily, with the support of organisations like Sense, Harvey is now a really happy child who is eager to learn, loves exploring and has a cheeky personality.”

Harvey has appeared in the charity’s 2025 Christmas appeal and on TV news features about the struggles faced by disabled children in education.

The episode of EastEnders starring Harvey will air on BBC One at 7.30pm on Wednesday.