Winter 2020Britain’s Got Talent - Young stars finish second

Sign language champions ‘Sign Along With Us’ are well-deserved local winners with their message of inclusivity, after finishing in second place in this year’s final of Britain’s Got Talent.

One of the ten final acts, Heywood siblings Jade and Christian Kilduff who started the group in 2019, were joined on the final stage by other local children and adults, backed by the Rochdale Music Service Youth Choir.

Determined to improve the lives of those with disabilities, Jade started ‘Sign Along With Us’ in January 2019, originally a daily sign-of-the-day video page, teaching Makaton which she uses to communicate with her little brother, five.

Christian has already overcome many obstacles in his short life: stillborn at birth before taking his first breath at 24 minutes old, he was left with a brain injury from the lack of oxygen. Placed on a ventilator to try and save his life, Christian was given a less than 1% chance of coming out of the coma.

Miraculously, the brave little boy, who has also been diagnosed with cerebral palsy and registered severely sight impaired, has proved critics wrong – going on to achieve milestones his family were told he wouldn’t do.

After sharing their videos, Jade then began offering free signing classes for all, quickly being joined by many people keen to learn sign language. Used alongside speech, Makaton is based on British Sign Language and is signed in English grammatical word order.

Over 100,000 children and adults use Makaton symbols and signs, either as their main method of communication, or as a way to support speech.

After learning ‘This Is Me’ from The Greatest Showman – the group’s unofficial motto – they decided to audition for the TV talent show.

The group teamed up with the Rochdale Music Service Youth Choir and in their first appearance on the show were rewarded by David Walliams’ choosing them as his golden buzzer act, putting them straight through to the semi-finals.

Their performance received standing ovations from the judges and the group were chosen to make it though to the final by the public after their performance in their semi-final.

Due to coronavirus restrictions, the full group of 70 weren’t on stage for the final – but Jade, Christian and some of the group performed on stage, joined by the rest of their signing family via a big screen.

Wearing matching white and gold ‘Sign Along With Us’ tracksuits, the group performed country pop power ballad ‘The Climb’, originally recorded by Miley Cyrus for the 2009 film Hannah Montana: The Movie.

Jade hopes to keep the group doing what they do best and keep spreading the important message of inclusion.

She said: “Appearing on Britain’s Got Talent was so exciting! I definitely had three favourite moments, which were being awarded the golden buzzer, placing second and then back at the hotel after the final. The whole group was there celebrating, singing and signing ‘This Is Me’.”

Jade asks Christian his favourite moment before telling us that he responded by signing ‘This Is Me’ – but it’s clear the little boy enjoyed the whole experience – as seen by his grin on stage – with Jade telling us he keeps saying ‘got talent!’

Further inspired by her love for her little brother, Jade also wants to use their platform to create a fully-inclusive holiday home for children like Christian. She estimates that getting started will cost around £50,000 before maintenance costs – and they are already 10% of the way there.

“My dream is for there to be a few, but we’d like the initial one to be somewhere like Blackpool or North Wales – not too far away, accessible and with plenty of things to do.”

Jade concluded: “Coming second in a show like Britain’s Got Talent shows that every member of our group can be who they want to be, stand tall and say ‘this is me.’

“This wasn’t shown, but I actually got really emotional on stage. I love my group so much and they have put endless amounts of effort into this. They all deserve this so much and I’m so incredibly proud of them all.

“Our story is so moving and the feeling I felt after our performance was something that will be with me for the rest of my life. Christian is a little miracle and is showing the world sign after sign how amazing he is.

“This is how much Sign Along With Us truly means to us all.”