NHS hearing aid users across Rotherham can ensure they can clearly hear their friends and family throughout the year by dropping in to Action on Hearing Loss’s Hear to Help sessions.

Funded by The Co-operative, the Hear to Help project is run by Action on Hearing Loss to reduce the loneliness and isolation often experienced by people who wear hearing aids. The project helps visitors to carry out basic maintenance on their hearing aid, such as replacing tubing and batteries, as well as providing advice on equipment that can make life easier in the workplace and at home.

Action on Hearing Loss’s Senior Community Support Officer, Lorraine Briscoe, says: “We’re running our Hear to Help drop-in sessions throughout the year to show people, in their own communities, how to make their NHS hearing aids more comfortable and work better for them. It’s amazing how simple adjustments, cleaning or maintenance to their hearing aids can make a world of difference to how clearly people can hear their friends and family.”

Regular hearing aid support sessions are being organised to take place across Rotherham in the following venues:

• Kimberworth Library, Church Street between 10.30am – 11.30am on the first Tuesday of every month
• Wickersley Health Centre. Popular Glade between 10am – 12am on the first and third Wednesdays of every month
• Maltby Health Centre, Braithwell Road between 2pm – 3pm every Wednesday
• Green Lane Resource Centre, Green Lane, Moorgate between 2pm – 4pm on the first and third Friday of every month
• Dinnington community Library, Laughton Road, between 10am – 11.30am on the second Monday of every month
• Kiveton Park Primary Care Centre, Chapel Way between 1.30pm – 3pm on the second and fourth Monday of every month
• Highfield Court, Fitzwilliam Street, Swinton between 9.30am – 11am on the second Friday of every month
• Harthill Branch Surgery and Dispensary, Woodall Lane between  12.15pm – 1.15pm on the fourth Monday of every month
• Rawmarsh Medical Surgery, Bellows Road, Rawmarsh between 10am – 12noon on the last Tuesday of every month
• Kimberworth Park Library, Wheatley Road between 10.30am – 11.30am on the last Thursday every month

For information about the drop-in sessions, contact Lorraine on telephone: 01709 514268 or e-mail: heartohelp.rotherham@hearingloss.org.uk

Contact for general media enquiries:

Alan Dalziel, Senior PR Officer at Action on Hearing Loss, telephone: 020 7296 8388 or email: alan.dalziel@hearingloss.org.uk

Notes for editors:

1. Action on Hearing Loss – formerly RNID – is the UK’s largest charity taking action on hearing loss. We want a world where hearing loss doesn’t limit or label people – and where people value their hearing enough to look after it.
2. For further information about Action on Hearing Loss or to become a member, visit www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk, contact the Action on Hearing Loss Information Line on 0808 808 0123 (freephone) or 0808 808 9000 (textphone) or email informationline@hearingloss.org.uk.
3. With the support of its staff, members and customers, The Co-operative raised £3.7 million to help Action on Hearing Loss expand the charity’s Hear to Help service.
4. The Co-operative Group stands apart from other major retailers in the UK as a business which is owned, not by a small group of shareholders, but by more than five million consumers. With core interests in food, financial services, travel, pharmacy, funerals and farms, it has an annual turnover of £14 billion, employs 123,000 staff and operates over 5,000 retail trading outlets handling more than 20 million weekly transactions. Following the acquisition of the Somerfield supermarket chain in March 2009, The Co-operative Food is the fifth largest food retailer. The Co-operative Financial Services is one of the largest and most diversified financial mutual businesses, operating The Co-operative Bank, The Co-operative Insurance and Britannia. The Co-operative is the UK’s number one provider of funeral services, the third largest retail pharmacy chain, a leading travel retailer, supplying the travel needs of more than three million people annually, and is the UK’s largest farmer. Among its other businesses are The Co-operative Motor Group, The Co-operative Electrical and The Co-operative Legal Services.