dearLARY is an email service providing information, career guidance and emotional support for people with voice problems. dearLARY can offer:
- Emotional support
- Career guidance – including how to manage your voice problem in the workplace
- Information on support services, legal rights under disability discrimination law, pointers to further information elsewhere.
- dearLARY offers support, information and options, but cannot make a diagnosis and cannot give medical, legal or other direct advice. We cannot provide ongoing support due to limited resources. We aim to explore the options available to assist you move forward in your situation.
Questions about the dearLARY service
1. Who can contact dearLARY?2. How does dearLARY work?
3. Does dearLARY provide an international service?
4. Who will answer my email?
5. How long will it take for my email to be answered?
6. What do I do if I am in crisis?
7. Is this a confidential service?
8. What about email security?
9. What about Data Protection?
10. Why do we collect information about you?
11. What liability does dearLARY accept?
12. How do I contact dearLARY?
Who can contact dearLARY?
Anyone with a voice problem or problem with your larynx. We can also respond to people who are concerned about someone they know with a voice problem.
How does dearLARY work?
For the timebeing we ask you contact dearLARY briefly with your issue. We say this because due to current resources we may not be able to respond fully at this time. We will get back to you on what we can do in response to your initial email.
We ask you to select the kind of support you are looking for – emotional, information or career guidance. If you are looking for a mixture, you can select more than one option. Although you must have a voice problem to use the service, what you contact dearLARY about does not have to be directly to do with your voice problem.
You can contact dearLARY using our e-form or by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Does dearLARY provide an international service?
Unfortunately not. If you are outside of the UK, you may want to visit http://www.befrienders.org
However, you are very welcome to use our FORUM and other resources on the site.
Who will answer my email?
Volunteers will answer your email. We try to match your message to a volunteer with relevant experience/knowledge. It is for this reason we ask you if you are looking for more emotional support, information or career guidance. If you are looking for more than one of these, more than one of our volunteers may look at your message.
How long will it take for my email to be answered?
We aim to respond within 10 days. On submitting your email, you will receive an auto-response to let you know that we have received your message. Please do not respond to the auto-response.
What do I do if I am in crisis?
dearLARY cannot provide crisis support. However, you can contact the Samaritans at www.samaritans.org.uk. They can also be contacted by phone 24 hours a day on:
UK: 08457 90 90 90
ROI: 1850 60 90 90
Or by email at:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Is this a confidential service?
Yes, the service is completely confidential in most cases and will not be shared with anyone outside The Lary Project. However, in very rare cases we may break confidentiality. dearLARY/The Lary Project is not able to provide a confidential service under circumstances where Lary Project policy or the law dictates a breach of confidentiality. In the case of terrorism, legal compulsion, or where we judge there to be a high risk of active suicide or serious risk of harm to another and you have given your name and address in the email, we may judge it important to pass your information on to another party.
Whether or not we take action is largely dependent on the personal information contained in the message. We do not use technology to trace emails. If you are worried about remaining anonymous, you may not want to give us identifying information such as your surname, home address and phone number.
What about email security?
The security risks associated with sending emails, in terms of unauthorised people intercepting your message, are minimal. We can see your email address, but this is not used for any other purpose other than to respond to you. If you wish to remain completely anonymous, we suggest creating a generic email address through www.hotmail.com or www.yahoo.co.uk for example.
The Lary Project cannot be responsible for confidentiality at your end. If you share a PC, it may be possible for other people to be able to see emails you have sent or sites you have visited on the Internet, as your browser maintains a record of these. If this is a concern for you, it should be possible for you to cover your tracks by deleting all temporary Internet files from your hard drive and deleting all links in your history folder. Instructions for deleting this information depend on the specifics of your browser. You may also wish to delete any emails you have sent from your 'Sent Items' folder.
To protect against viruses and SPAM we ask that you do not include attachments with your email. If we suspect your email contains these, we may delete it without opening it to prevent any damage to our systems.
The Lary Project cannot warrant the privacy and/or security of emails during internet transmission.
What about Data Protection?
dearLARY is subject to the Data Protection Act 1998. All personal information is stored on a secure server for a maximum period of three years, after which time it is destroyed in accordance with the Act. Any information we receive is not passed on to any other organisation, except in cases where we need to break confidentiality (see above).
Why do we collect information about you?
Anonymised data is kept for statistical and research purposes and to help us to develop the service or campaign to improve the situation for those with voice disorders. Individuals cannot be identified from these records. Other than the previously mentioned reasons, any information you include helps us to provide you with the most relevant information from our database and other resources, as well as the most appropriate support.
What liability does The Lary Project accept for dearLARY services?
The Lary Project wants to provide helpful support. However, particularly because of our very limited resources, The Lary Project cannot accept liability for any action taken as a result of any response from dearLARY . dearLARY reserves the right to take appropriate action if an emailer is deemed to be inappropriately using the service. Our full terms and conditions, terms of use and privacy policy apply to all of The Lary Project’s activities including the dearLARY service.
How do I contact dearLARY?
You can contact dearLARY using our e-form or by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
