Action on Hearing Loss news

Mark Deaf Awareness Week by following our top communication tips

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:52:54 +0100

During Deaf Awareness Week (6 - 12 May 2013), we're urging people across the UK to follow some top communication tips

These tips are to avoid excluding or making everyday life more difficult for family, friends or colleagues with hearing loss.

We want you to visit our Deaf Awareness Week pages and view videos highlighting how difficult communication is for people who live life without sound.

You can also take part in a fun challenge to lipread and guess what is said in examples of everyday conversation – and see just how confusing they can be for people who are deaf.

Top tips

We're promoting the following top tips during Deaf Awareness Week:

Make sure you have the person’s attention before you start speaking.
Places with good lighting (so that you can be lipread) and little or no background noise are best for conversations.
Face the person so you can be lipread and speak clearly, using plain language, normal lip movements and facial expressions.
Check whether the person understands what you are saying and, if not, try saying it in a different way.
Keep your voice down as it’s uncomfortable for a hearing aid user if you shout and it looks aggressive.
Learn fingerspelling or some basic British Sign Language (BSL).

Chief executive of Action on Hearing Loss, Paul Breckell, says: “One in six people have some form of hearing loss and many will avoid social occasions or have difficulty at work because they struggle to follow conversations when speaking with people who are not deaf aware.

“During Deaf Awareness Week, we are encouraging everyone to follow our communication tips and help remove unnecessary barriers preventing people with hearing loss from joining in everyday fun conversations or important discussions.”

ZIP IT!

We're also encouraging people to ‘ZIP IT!’ during Deaf Awareness Week by holding a sponsored silence in their school, college or workplace to raise vital funds for the charity’s life-changing work supporting people with hearing loss.

Contact for general media enquiries:

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

Notes for editors:

Action on Hearing Loss 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.
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.

Feeling good

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:14:39 +0100

Why do deaf people sometimes experience more mental health issues than hearing people? Alice Lagnado reports.

People who are deaf and use British Sign Language (BSL) as their main method of communication have a higher incidence of mental health problems than hearing people, research has shown.

About 40% of deaf children experience mental health problems, compared to 25% for non-deaf children, according to Department of Health figures. To develop well, deaf children need access to whichever language or languages work best for them.

“For healthy cognitive and emotional development children need language – it doesn’t matter whether this is English, BSL or Hindi. It’s not an oral versus BSL issue,” explains clinical psychologist Sally Austen.

She says: “Language is the foundation of thinking: of good reasoning skills, the ability to see someone else’s point of view and the ability to have insight. Many BSL users find it easier to talk to a therapist also fluent in the language.”

Double bind

At the same time, people who are deaf have difficulty in accessing mental health services.

The number of specialist units are limited, and currently under threat due to proposed changes to the way the NHS is run.

The numbers of deaf staff at specialist units have also fallen. One of the reasons is the high cost of training them, though that is often offset by the reduced costs for BSL interpreters.

Steve Powell, chief executive of the SignHealth charity, which works to improve the health of deaf people, thinks the drop is mainly due to the lack of targets set to employ more deaf staff.

“At one time there was an aspiration to have 50% of frontline healthcare workers in specialised mental health units for deaf people from the deaf community,” he says. But this has disappeared due to new NHS employment policies.

Deaf people with everyday mental health issues, meanwhile, have poor access to psychological therapies, for example, for moderate depression.

Good news

The good news is that, right now, the NHS is piloting a new service for deaf people in the north west of England.

The project is for deaf BSL users who want a therapist for mild or everyday mental health concerns, and is staffed by mostly deaf therapists fluent in BSL.

If this project goes well, it could potentially be extended to the rest of the UK. Some of the people living in Action on Hearing Loss care homes have mental health issues, too.

We support them when they visit their GPs. We also ensure that they have health ‘action plans’ which include information about their communication needs, to help medical staff if they are admitted to hospital.

Getting help

If you have any mental health concerns, you can contact SignHealth for advice on 01494 687600 (tel), 01494 687626 (textphone) or 07966 976749 (text message). Or you can visit their website at www.signhealth.org.uk (opens new window). You can also text the Samaritans on 07725 909090 or email jo@samaritans.org.

Case study: A way out

Mrs Jones* is deaf and lives with her husband and two children,

who are hearing. None of them could communicate with her fully in BSL, so she felt depressed and isolated. When they did communicate with her, she felt they did not listen properly, and they began to argue.

Mrs Jones started to work with a therapist and talk about her feelings of isolation. She looked at how to change her sometimes confrontational or challenging behaviour. As a result, she was able to explain how she felt to her husband and what she thought would help.

Communication within the family improved, and this in turn improved Mrs Jones’s self-confidence and reduced her feelings of depression and isolation.

*Mrs Jones is a pseudonym and the picture on the right does not depict anyone in this article. With thanks to SignHealth.

Want to read more?

This article was also published in the Action on Hearing Loss magazine.

If you would like to read more news, interviews and features linked to hearing loss, you can become a member of Action on Hearing Loss.

Do you want to be a Torchbearer for the London 2012 Paralympic Games?

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:09:41 +0100

Final call for nominations - closing date 22 November

In conjunction with Lloyds TSB, Action on Hearing Loss is calling for inspirational individuals to carry the Paralympic Flame.

Open to all

We’re working with Lloyds TSB (opens new window), other disability charities and the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) (opens new window) to help make the London 2012 Games accessible to everyone.

This once in a lifetime opportunity is open to all our supporters, service users, volunteers and anyone else who has supported or is a positive and inspirational role model for people who are deaf or have a hearing loss.

Anyone can be a Paralympic Torchbearer so whether you are a Hear to Help volunteer with hearing loss, a service user who is deaf, someone with a cochlear implant or a hearing supporter, you can apply to represent Action on Hearing Loss at the Paralympic Games.

All you need to do is describe how you have inspired or helped people who are deaf or have a hearing loss in your community, or nominate someone you know.

Apply now

To apply, please visit the Lloyds TSB website (opens new window) and complete a nomination form by 22 November for the chance to be a Torchbearer for the Paralympic Games.

Contact us

If you would like further information or advice, please contact:

Kelly Broome,
Volunteer Resource and Development Manager

Telephone: 01273 315980
Textphone: 18002 01273 315980

Email kelly.broome@hearingloss.org.uk.

Nominee Approval Process

Nominator completes the Nomination Form and returns it to volunteering@hearingloss.org.uk.
Charity filters the nominations and rates them using nomination criteria form. The Charity then sends Lloyds TSB their selected Torchbearers to paralympicflame@lloydsbanking.com
Lloyds TSB contacts the nominee to congratulate them on being selected and supplies the T&C’s. The nominee must confirm in writing they have accepted the Torchbearer place and have read and agreed the T&C’s, to understand how their personal information will be used, by no later than 6 December. If the nominee is under 18 years of age, then approval from a parent/guardian.
Only on receipt of this can the process continue, ie. passing the nomination to the Lloyds TSB panel to be judged (to ensure they meet the nomination criteria) and ratified. If the nomination does not meet the nomination criteria the charity will be contacted and asked to make another nomination.
If no email address is held for the nominee, the Lloyds TSB will write to the nominee with details of the nomination and provide the T&Cs. The nominee (or parent/guardian) will be asked to signify that they approve/accept the nomination and that they have read and agreed to the T&Cs.

Charity calls on employers to end 'uncaring culture'

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:03:42 +0100

UK charity Action on Hearing Loss is calling on employers to end their ‘uncaring culture’ and remove the major barriers that prevent people who have hearing loss from progressing with their careers, forcing many out of work.

In a report entitled ‘Unlimited Potential?', Action on Hearing Loss – formerly RNID – is revealing the disturbing impact that bad practice by some UK employers is having on the working experiences of people with hearing loss. According to the charity’s survey of 4,000 members, more than one in three (36%) respondents said they took early retirement and one in seven (14%) changed jobs because of their hearing loss. The survey also found that 40% of respondents said losing their hearing made them less confident, which could explain why 33% of respondents didn’t tell their employer or colleagues about their hearing loss.

Employees with hearing loss should be protected from discrimination by the Equality Act 2010, which requires employers to make reasonable adjustments to enable a disabled person to work. The Government’s Access to Work (AtW) (opens new window) scheme supports employers by helping fund the adjustments needed to enable disabled people to work, but the charity’s research found a general lack of awareness about the legal requirements and Access to Work amongst both employees with hearing loss and their employers.

Antonia Bond, 51, from Burton-on-Trent wears two hearing aids and took part in the research. Antonia says: “I’ve only ever managed to secure agency work and, unfortunately, got appropriate support for my hearing loss in just a couple of jobs. Companies just don’t want to know when they think equipment to help me will start costing money and, when I raised the issue with my recruitment agency, they suggested that I pretend to hear ‘because there are plenty more people who want jobs!’. I’ve had some shocking experiences with one employer shutting me away in a filing room for eight hours when top management were visiting and the same company reprimanding me for not hearing a fire alarm! I’m now doing voluntary work and doubt I’ll experience paid employment again because, without proper support, it’ll be completely unbearable!”

Jackie Ballard, Chief Executive for Action on Hearing Loss, says: “There are 3.7million people of working age with hearing loss and our research shows that organisational culture has a huge impact on their experience in the workplace. It is unacceptable that people feel they cannot continue in their jobs because their employer has failed to put clear procedures in place to support staff with hearing loss. With people expected to work longer and UK unemployment at its highest level for 17 years, the Government has a vital role in raising awareness of Access to Work funding and employers’ legal responsibilities to ensure that people with hearing loss are fully supported to stay in work and gain the same opportunities as other staff to fulfil their career potential.”

To obtain a PDF version of ‘Unlimited Potential?: A research report into hearing loss in the workplace’ visit www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/unlimitedpotential

–ENDS–

Contact for general media enquiries:

Alan Dalziel, Senior PR Officer, telephone: 020 7296 8388, mobile: 07944 038635 or email: alan.dalziel@hearingloss.org.uk

Notes for editors:

For ‘Unlimited Potential?: A research report into hearing loss in the workplace’, Action on Hearing Loss received more than 4,000 responses to questions about the employment experiences of people with hearing loss in the charity’s 2010 membership survey. The charity researchers also carried out in-depth interviews with 27 people with acquired hearing loss between September and December 2010 about their experiences in the workplace.
Action on Hearing Loss is the charity working for a world where hearing loss doesn't limit or label people, where tinnitus is silenced – and where people value and look after their hearing.
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

Femme fatale

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:52:56 +0100

Rachel Shenton, who plays Mitzeee in the television series Hollyoaks, adores playing a character so different from her. By Alice Lagnado.

Rachel Shenton, the almost impossibly beautiful young actress who plays Mitzeee in the popular television series Hollyoaks (opens new window), loves playing the part of a girl who is so different from her.

Mitzeee, the girl who spells her name with three ‘e’s so she doesn’t seem so plain, is a gift of a role.

She’s a sexy, ruthless femme fatale, plotting and scheming her way to the top in the way that women have done so often over the centuries, in literature and in film – except that unlike some of them, Mitzeee (real name Ann Minniver) seems to get away with it.

Down-to-earth

Rachel, on the other hand, is a down-to-earth girl from Stoke-on-Trent who prefers to go without the multiple layers of make-up Mitzeee wears, or her enormous Cheryl Cole blow-dry and skintight clothes.

Rachel, 24, has been involved with charities related to hearing loss for a number of years, and is a qualified British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

That would be hard for Mitzeee to understand. “She couldn’t get her head around doing something for somebody else,” said Rachel in an interview with us. But “it’s great to play someone who is not like you,” she says.

“There are physical similarities but not in terms of character. I don’t dress like her – I don’t like her style,” admits Rachel.

And she and fellow Hollyoaks star Bronagh Waugh, who plays Cheryl Brady in the soap, went make-up free for a photoshoot for Heat magazine earlier this year, to show fans they didn’t need a lot of make-up to look good.

Gumption

Rachel admires Mitzeee’s gumption. “You’ve got to admire the sheer audacity of the girl, she has no shame,” says Rachel.

After all, Mitzeee is the girl who is described as a ‘WAG-Supreme’ and who forms close partnerships with murderous gangsters in order to get her wicked way!

Rachel has strong links to the deaf community because she encountered deafness in her family at an early age. When she was 12 her father Geoff lost his hearing overnight, due to chemotherapy he had for cancer.

Rachel remembers how quickly her father became deaf, and it made her aware of the lack of awareness people generally have of hearing loss.

“I always say it’s so silent and easily missed,” she says. If someone is obviously physically disabled, she says, it may be hard to miss, but hearing loss is less obvious.

Raising awareness

“I’m not sure it’s taboo, but it’s overlooked. It’s awareness that needs to be raised,” she says. People don’t realise that someone with hearing loss is just as capable as anyone else, she says.

“Deaf people can do every job [that there is]. People are quite ignorant.”

If someone sees a deaf person and realises the person cannot hear them, they won’t always make the effort, she says.

“I think people go right, okay, I won’t then, and leave it. It’s easier to turn away.”

We take our hearing for granted, says Rachel. “We take everything for granted. We get very bogged down with life and mundane things. It’s human nature, it’s normal,” she says.

Her father’s experience did make her think again. “It made me take stock and try to be grateful for having my hearing,” she says. “I certainly make a conscious effort to value it.”

After her father died (of causes unrelated to his cancer, which he recovered from) Rachel trained as a BSL interpreter.

Many people find it tough to learn BSL to the level required for interpreting – but Rachel took to it easily.

“I enjoyed it. It was not a chore!” she says. “I got involved in a local charity, Deaflinks, and because I was using BSL a few times a week, and have deaf friends and went to deaf clubs, I found it quite easy to pick up!”

A sense of community

“Getting involved in signing was one of the best things I’ve done. The deaf community is very inspiring,” she says. “There is a sense of community in the deaf community that we [hearing people] don’t always have.”

Hollyoaks is one of the few TV soaps with BSL interpretation. Would Rachel like there to be a deaf character in the soap? “It’s definitely something that I would want.”

It would also be interesting, says Rachel, if a character like Mitzeee was to show she happened to know some BSL, for example, by signing one day.

There could be a character on the show who just happened to be able to communicate in BSL, showing that it’s part of UK culture, without making a big song and dance about it, she says.

And there’s no doubt that this approach can be more effective than heavy-handed messaging.

But Rachel’s quick to be considerate towards the writing team on Hollyoaks: “We have a great writing team here, and it’s not my job [to decide those things],” she says.

Working 9 to 5?

Rachel worked as an interpreter when she first qualified, as well as acting, but that’s not something she can do any more due to a gruelling work schedule. She’s working on Hollyoaks 12 hours a day, five days a week – “it’s very full on,” she says.

But she has no plans to move on. “I’m very happy at Hollyoaks, the storylines are great,” she says.

Hollyoaks is the latest in a line of TV appearances; Rachel first appeared on our screens aged 18 in the medical soap Holby City and went on to appear in Waterloo Road, Doctors and more.

Despite her busy schedule, however, she is making time next year to climb Mount Kilimanjaro for the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) (opens new window). She starts training in January, which will be challenging on top of her television work, but she sounds very upbeat about it.

In fact, it’s hard not to catch some of Rachel’s sunny enthusiasm and energy when you talk to her. She’s without doubt a fantastic ambassador for the hearing loss cause, and there will be plenty of people hoping she can influence what we see on our television screens.

What do I do if I lose my hearing suddenly?

If you experience sudden hearing loss in one or both ears, see your GP as soon as possible. Unless the problem is just a blockage caused by a wax build-up, which can be removed in some GP surgeries, you should ask your GP for an urgent referral to an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist. This is particularly important if your GP also discovers that you have a perforated eardrum, discharge from your ears or if you are feeling dizzy.

If you cannot see your GP and have severe sudden hearing loss, you should go to your nearest accident and emergency department. It is very likely that the hospital will have an ENT department. An ENT specialist should carry out detailed tests to assess the degree and type of hearing loss you may have. You may need to stay in hospital for appropriate treatment or you may be treated as an outpatient. Write to us for our leaflet, Losing your hearing suddenly, or visit www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/losingyourhearing and scroll down the page to find the leaflet online.

Further information

This article is also published in the Action on Hearing Loss magazine.

If you would like to read more news, interviews and features linked to hearing loss, you can become a member of Action on Hearing Loss.

Action on Hearing Loss Volunteer Awards 2012 nominations now open!

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:32:10 +0100

Our volunteers bring many skills to Action on Hearing Loss and their experience, energy, enthusiasm and commitment is so important to our success. We wouldn’t be the charity we are today without them, so now is the chance to recognise this and show our appreciation by gathering nominations for our Volunteer Awards 2012. We invite you to nominate fellow Action on Hearing Loss volunteers who you feel have gone that extra mile.

We will be hosting both Regional and National awards and we want you to nominate volunteers for awards in the following categories:

Champions the cause
Builds trust
Inspires leadership
Promotes teamwork
Champions the brand
Delivers results

Find out more about the nomination categories from our Values and Behaviours.

Nominations for the awards open on the 8 February and close on 30 March.

The award ceremonies will take place in early June to coincide with National Volunteers week (1 – 7 June).

Download a nomination form (Word, 83kb, opens new window) and the citation guide (Word, 64 kb, opens new window) or request a copy from volunteering@hearingloss.org.uk.

This is a great opportunity to highlight and demonstrate the diverse and far reaching contributions that volunteers are making across the full spectrum of our activities. Your stories will be an inspiration and encourage others to get involved in our work.

Last year, Georgina Courtenay-Mayers won the National award for ‘Delivers results’ in recognition of her contribution to major projects including helping to set up, run and expand the Ealing Hearing Aid Users’ group and was given the opportunity to attend our Centenary reception at Buckingham Palace as a result of her award.

Feel inspired?

Nominate (Word 83kb, opens new window) your Volunteer Champions for 2012 now!

Lobbying to change social care

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:16:02 +0100

The Care and Support Alliance (External link, opens new window) is holding a lobby day to urge the government to create a better social care system for all.

End the Care Crisis: Lobby 2012 (opens new window) is meeting in London on 6 March 2012 at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. They will be asking MPs for a social care system that:

is fairly and suitably funded
offers high quality care
delivers dignity, independence and choice
supports and offers peace of mind for older and disabled people and their families

Register to attend

If you wish to take part you can register to attend (opens new window).

End The Care Crisis lobby

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:47:42 +0100

Action on Hearing Loss supported the End The Care Crisis Lobby on 6 March 2012, when more than 1,000 people came to meet their MPs to tell the government that the social care system in England urgently needs reform. This was organised by the Care and Support Alliance (external link, opens new window), a consortium of organisations, including Age UK and RNIB.

We are supporting this because we’re worried about how government cuts are affecting people who receive support from social services. In addition, this problem will only get worse if the government doesn’t do anything. As our population gets older, we’ll make more demands on the social care system – with no more money available to fund it. Therefore, we’re urging the government not to shy away from making reforms to social care funding. With the government expected to publish its white paper on social care reform in April, the lobby was an important opportunity for the Care and Support Alliance to get this message across.

As well as the lobby, the Care and Support Alliance organised the #twobby, a lobby that used social networks. Thousands of people interacted with the lobby and their MPs online via twitter and Facebook, enabling people who couldn’t make it to London to be involved and have their voices heard by their MPs.

Melissa Echalier, from our Health and Social Care team was stewarding the event outside the Houses of Parliament. ‘It got really busy during the afternoon. It was a great experience to see such a large number of people who care about our social care system and had made the trip to Westminster to let the government know their views’.

The outcome that we want to see is new fair sustainable arrangements that ensure the high quality of social care provision for those people who need it.

Find out more

For further information, contact Melissa Echalier at Action on Hearing Loss. You can find more information about the End The Care Crisis Lobby at http://carelobby2012.org.uk/ (external link, opens new window).

End the care crisis - take action

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:31:23 +0100

Action on Hearing Loss is worried about recent developments in the social care system. We know that local authorities’ provision of equipment for people with hearing loss is already patchy – in some areas equipment, such as TV listeners and flashing smoke alarms, is free to people with hearing loss while in others people buy their own equipment. We’ve heard reports that the cuts to government spending mean that this type of equipment is being restricted even more. This will mean that some people with hearing loss will no longer be able to access the equipment that can improve their quality of life and ensure that they are fully able to benefit from their hearing aids.

Similarly, we’re worried about cuts to the services provided to people in residential care and to people who receive home care services. If staff levels are cut, staff are likely to prioritise other issues over hearing loss; for instance, they may not check that hearing aid batteries have not run out.

For this reason we’re working with the Care and Support Alliance to urge the government to take action on social care. In the current economic climate it would be easy for the government to shy away from making tough decisions about the future of social care. We are running out of time to act. We need to show MPs how important it is that the failings in the current system are addressed.

Take action now

Please urge your MP to put pressure on the government to ensure that something is done about the crisis, by sending a message to your MP via this Care and Support Alliance (External link, opens new window).

For further information, contact Melissa Echalier at Action on Hearing Loss. You can find more information about the End The Care Crisis Lobby in our previous news story or by visiting http://carelobby2012.org.uk/ (external link, opens new window).

Life in a war zone

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:15:39 +0100

John Simpson, BBC World Affairs Editor, tells Chris White how a career on the frontline has affected his hearing.

John Simpson has been reporting from war zones into the homes of BBC viewers for over 40 years. His illustrious career has brought him to some of the world’s most volatile places at the most dangerous times. He has dodged bullets in the 1989 Tiannamen Square massacre and was one of the first journalists to enter Kabul as the Taliban regime fell in 2001, famously disguising himself in a burka.

In 2003, whilst reporting from Iraq, John Simpson and his production team were hit by US friendly fire. The bomb blast left him deaf in one ear. It was a horrific accident, which killed 18 people including John’s translator whose legs were blown off and who died of blood loss almost immediately. “It was horrible,” he recalls. Recent events in Syria have shown that this line of work is undoubtedly dangerous, and John considers himself very lucky not to have been more seriously injured in the blast in Iraq. “A big lump of shrapnel got stuck in my flak jacket near my spine; I could have been in a wheelchair. I didn’t get killed like so many other people so I feel that it’s rather bad karma to complain about the deafness.”

Loss of hearing

Despite being just 12 yards away from the blast, John survived with shrapnel wounds and a damaged left eardrum. “Funnily enough, it wasn’t too bad; I only lost about 30% of my hearing,” he says, “I had a new eardrum built quite quickly; that worked fine until 2005. I haven’t done anything about it since, as it could take me out of work for about two months."

“In 2006, I went to Kosovo. My colleague and I were walking down the street late one evening when we were jumped on by a group of six or seven men,” he recalls. “One of them hit me on my bad ear a couple of times. That made it much worse. I can hear much less now than I could and I’m always turning my good ear toward whoever’s talking.”

He also found that the tinnitus that developed as a result of the bomb blast in Iraq has worsened. “It’s very loud and quite irritating. Again, that’s much worse since I got beaten up.

“It’s louder – not more highpitched, thank God. Now it’s just the loudest noise in the room to me. The thing is, it’s a steady tone and you can ignore it. I’m more aware of it right now because I’m thinking about it, but most of the time I’m thinking about something else so I’m not terribly bothered about it.”

At his last check-up, John had 70% hearing loss in his left ear, though his right ear is undamaged. He is grateful not to have been blinded by shrapnel in the explosion in Iraq: “Being blind creates sympathy. When you’re deaf, people have to speak louder and repeat everything; it’s a nuisance rather than something that creates sympathy. Even my five-year-old son sometimes gets a bit sick of having to say everything loudly and clearly for the second or third time.”

Noise damage

Having spent so many years reporting from the field, working alongside the military, John is all too aware of the impact of noise-damage on hearing. Estimates suggest that 22,000 people in the UK have hearing loss related to damage sustained at work. The implications include no longer being able to do the job. “Members of the Armed Forces hide their deafness for fear of being thought ‘sissy’ but, more importantly, it would seriously affect your abilities as a soldier; you wouldn’t be able to listen to instructions,” John says.

He is honest about his hearing loss, “I don’t have any problems discussing it; I don’t feel anybody will judge me harshly, and I’ve often said ‘I’m sorry, I can’t hear in one ear’. Many times I’ve found soldiers say, ‘Oh, I am too!’”

Part of the problem is the unpredictability of explosions. John was terrified after an incident driving in Kabul jeopardised his own career. An explosion blew in the car window beside him, on his good side. “For a moment, I was just terrified because I thought ‘That’s it – I’m finished now’. I don’t think I could carry on [with work] if I were deaf in both ears.”

Making adjustments

Thankfully, it did not cause lasting damage to his good ear. Despite his deafness John is showing no signs of giving up war reporting, and has most recently reported from the conflict in Libya. He makes adjustments for work, such as asking his director and cameraman to speak into his right ear and he has had earpieces specially made for his ‘good’ ear so he can hear questions from anchormen in the studio. “When I go to a press conference, I’ll try and get my producer to come so that if I miss something he or she will pick it up.”

Naturally he has made adjustments in other areas of his life too. “I don’t like big parties in closed-in places. I never did like them much, but I actively avoid them now.” He laments his hearing loss in some duties, like distributing certificates to the graduating students at Roehampton University, where he is Chancellor. “I would like to use their first name and congratulate them; it’s one of the most important days of their lives.” He also misses some of the simple pleasures in life; “I used to swim every day and was a keen scuba diver but I’ve had to give them up because I find that I get infections in that ear.”

He acknowledges that his hearing is getting worse, but that it’s part of his life now. He does not wear a hearing aid, as he has been advised it would not be helpful for him, although for many people with noise-induced hearing loss they are. “I think it’s because all the bones in my ear are so out of kilter that it wouldn’t work. But if it would, I’d do it like a shot.”

Become a member

This article was also published in the Action on Hearing Loss magazine. If you would like to read more news, interviews and features linked to hearing loss, become a member of Action on Hearing Loss and receive our award-winning magazine every two months.

Join the conversation

Join the conversation on Facebook (External link, opens new window) or Twitter (external link, opens new window), or on our Deafness and hearing loss or Tinnitus forums.

Banking on better services

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:13:50 +0100

HSBC spent an afternoon at our offices to gather your views on banks. Johanna Taylor reports on their visit.

In our 2010 national survey of loop systems we visited more than 1,500 high street services, including a dozen HSBC branches. Ten of these had loops, but only half of them were switched on and ready for use.

Since then we’ve been working with HSBC to encourage them to improve access for customers with hearing loss. HSBC is a large, complex organisation and getting the needs of people with hearing loss on the agenda is a challenge – particularly at a time when banks are under fire.

So we were delighted when HSBC’s Customer Diversity Manager, Neil Shadbolt, picked up the phone in February to say the bank’s senior decision-makers had launched a review to evaluate the way it supports customers with disabilities.

Neil, who champions the needs of people with disabilities, had used the findings of our loop survey to encourage the bank to take action and asked to meet some of our members to get fresh insight into the needs of people with hearing loss when accessing banking services.

We realised this was a golden opportunity to get your needs recognised and jumped into action! We invited Neil and his colleague, Kerri Ricketts, to spend the afternoon at our headquarters where they had in-depth conversations with 10 people with a range of levels of hearing loss, including lipreaders, hearing aid wearers, British Sign Language (BSL) users and cochlear implant wearers.

Our volunteers did a fantastic job in bringing to life many of the key problems found in our 2011 members’ survey, such as communications procedures that ignore the needs of people with hearing loss, loop problems and the need for greater deaf awareness amongst staff.

A common frustration was the use of the telephone to verify the identity of customers such as when a card’s been stolen – even if the bank has been told they have hearing loss.

A compelling insight

Thanks to our members’ invaluable input, Neil and Kerri went away with a compelling insight into the issues you face and a clear idea about what needs to change to make sure that their services are accessible.

“It was great to hear people’s real-life experiences from them directly and to find out what is working for them and what isn’t,” said Neil. “This will help us to improve our practice and develop new deaf awareness training for staff.”

We will continue to work closely with HSBC to ensure that the needs of people with hearing loss remain high on their agenda.

Join the conversation

Discuss this issue on Facebook(external link, opens new window) or Twitter (external link, opens new window), or on our Deafness and hearing loss or Tinnitus forums.

Action on Hearing Loss President Lord Ashley passes away at the age of 89

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:12:24 +0100

He didn't let his own deafness limit or label him

Action on Hearing Loss President Lord Ashley of Stoke died Friday night, after a short illness, at the age of 89.

The former MP Jack Ashley campaigned throughout his long career for better legislation for people who are deaf or disabled, as he firmly believed in equality for all.

He had been president of the hearing loss charity since 1987 and had many notable achievements. After becoming profoundly deaf at the age of 45, Lord Ashley realised from sitting at the Houses of Parliament how isolating deafness can be and relied on his wife to repeat all the words spoken in the chamber. It was through this experience that he successfully campaigned to have live captioning on television.

Action on Hearing Loss Chief Executive Jackie Ballard said: ‘Jack was a great role model to anyone with hearing loss. He was such a gentleman, very kind and very giving. He had a brilliant career before and after losing his hearing. But he wasn’t just a supporter of the deaf; he was a champion for people of all disabilities.

‘Jack never stopped working for what he believed in right up until his death and would always speak up on behalf of people who are deaf or disabled. He was a tireless campaigner and there are many people in this country who have a lot to thank him for.’

Lord Ashley’s family have created a website (External link, opens new window) where you can leave your own tribute to Jack.

Role model

Jack Ashley was also interviewed in one of our most popular magazine features. Find out why many of our members and supporters thought of Jack Ashley as a role model.

Read a Lord Ashley tribute blog post by Dominic Stiles from the UCL Ear Institute.

Deaf Awareness Week Events

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:45:35 +0100

Action on Hearing Loss will be hosting over 50 events across the UK, which promote and raise awareness of the issue of better access to health care services by people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Key events to look out for

Talks to healthcare professionals

There will be a number of communication open surgeries happening in Manchester, Liverpool and Wirral, which raise awareness of the issues surrounding those with deafness or hearing loss, who have had problems accessing healthcare services.

View all events in the North.

Action squads

Action on Hearing Loss volunteers will be visiting healthcare and other services to promote better access for people with hearing loss.

Find out more about Action Squads in Rotherham and Glasgow.

Information stands

These will be within specific hospitals, supermarkets, fairs and events which offer information within the UK.

Collections

Action on Hearing Loss will have volunteers around London raising money, so if you see them in Camden, King’s Cross or the City of London why not donate money during this year’s Deaf Awareness Week.

Go to the movies

In support of Deaf Awareness Week Odeon cinemas will be putting on extra subtitled screenings of big new releases for the whole of the week, across their range of cinemas.

Take a look at their website (external link, opens new window) to see where and when you can see these films (choose your local cinema, then click on Filter events by Accessible).

Who can attend?

Whilst some events may be restricted to specific groups, most allow access by both the public and healthcare professionals.
We have aimed to make the majority of the events during Deaf Awareness Week accessible for those with various ranges of hearing loss, but please double check our website about this, before attending an event.
Some events do require registration, but most allow you to drop in.

Information about all the events we have going on are available in the News & Events section of our website, so see what’s happening in your area and get involved!

It’s not all about us

If you’re doing something positive or unique to raise awareness for Deaf Awareness Week tell us about on Twitter(external link, opens new window) or Facebook (external link, opens new window).

Are you running an event for Deaf Awareness week? We want to know about it!

'Entrepreneurial' leader sought as our new Chief Exec

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:29:35 +0100

Applications are being invited for the role of Chief Executive of Action on Hearing Loss following the announcement earlier this month that Jackie Ballard has accepted a new role at Womankind Worldwide.

Potential applicants are asked to submit their CV and supporting statement by 27 June.

The job advert states that a successful applicant will, “have an entrepreneurial leadership style – and a talent for communicating ideas and influencing opinion at the highest level.”

As Chief Executive they will, “lead us through a time of transition in the UK voluntary sector, fostering self-reliance, sustainability and innovation.”

Jackie Ballard said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed working at Action on Hearing Loss, as deafness and hearing loss is such a worthwhile cause and there is still so much to do to get people to take it seriously. I have had the privilege of working with a brilliant board of trustees and high performing staff.

“I am certain, though, that this is the right time for me to move on, as my successor will be able to shape the next 5 years of our work through a new strategy and will have the continuity of working with our current Chairman, whose term of office ends in November 2013.

Help us celebrate the life of Lord Jack Ashley

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:27:35 +0100

On 2 July, a memorial will be held in central London to celebrate the life and work of Lord Jack Ashley, Chairman of Action on Hearing Loss who sadly passed away on 20 April 2012.

Jack was a tireless campaigner for equal rights for people who are deaf or have a hearing loss as well as other disabilities. Jack lost his own hearing in 1968 while serving as a MP for Stoke-on-Trent, following an unsuccessful ear operation.

Since Jack’s passing, thousands of tributes have poured in from members of the public, politicians and the media. The celebration of Jack’s life will provide a chance for those who benefitted from his efforts to pay their tributes.

The BBC’s 'See Hear' (external link, opens new window) programme will be filming the memorial for a feature in October and will look at how the causes Jack supported will be continued.

British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters and a palantypist will provide communication support at the celebration and the venue is fully wheelchair accessible.

If you would like to attend the service, please contact the organisers via email on: jackashleymemorial@gmail.com

Ensure television and technology is more accessible

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:21:38 +0100

If subtitles are important to your enjoyment of television – we need your help!

Have you ever had the experience of looking forward to a television programme, but found subtitles were unavailable?

Or did you want to watch a programme on catch-up television only to find the subtitles had disappeared?

The Government is currently undertaking a review of the UK communications sector. It is vital that television accessibility – such as subtitling - is included in the review. We are calling for subtitle quotas to cover new technologies like catch-up TV, and we want current quotas increased so that more TV programmes are accessible.

We need your help to make sure that changes to the law improve access for people with hearing loss.

Urgent action needed - contact your MP today!

For over a year we have eagerly anticipated the publication of the Communications Green Paper , which, thanks to the engagement of our supporters, was due to consider the issue of subtitles.

However, this month it was announced that there will no longer be a Green Paper, but instead, four consultation seminars will now be used to gather the views of stakeholders.

The seminars begin in early July, and it’s essential that we act now to make sure the issue of subtitling stays on the Government’s agenda.

We are urgently calling on everyone in the UK who relies on subtitles to contact their MP today and ask them to write to Communications Minister Ed Vaizey MP, to ensure that subtitles aren’t forgotten in the Communications Review (external link, opens new window).

Go to www.theyworkforyou.com (External link, opens new window)
Enter your postcode
Send a message to your MP telling them about your own experiences and asking them to write to Communications Minister Ed Vaizey MP urging him to ensure that the provision of subtitling on all broadcast platforms, including catch-up and on demand services, is still examined by the Government.

Please email campaigns@hearingloss.org.uk to let us know that you have contacted your MP. If you live in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland please contact your Westminster MP as the Communications Review is being conducted by the UK Government.

Tell us about your action!

So that we can monitor our campaigning activity throughout the UK, we’d be delighted if you’d let us know who you’ve written to, so please tell us about it campaigns@hearingloss.org.uk.

Keeping you informed

We’ll keep you informed of progress with the review of the UK communications sector together with the direct action we are taking to ensure we shape a better future for subtitling.

Eminent supporters honoured in Queens birthday honours list 2012

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:18:45 +0100

Knighthood and OBE awarded

Image: RT Hon Sir Malcolm Bruce MP. Image courtesy of http://malcolmbruce.org.uk/en/(external link, opens new window)

We'd like to congratulate both Sir Malcolm and Adrian for being awarded by the Queen in the 2012 birthday honours list.

RT Hon Sir Malcolm Bruce MP

Our Vice-President and former trustee, RT Hon Malcolm Bruce MP was honoured with a Knighthood in recognition of his services to Public and Political Service.

Speaking to Signature (External link, opens new window) about his Knighthood, Sir Malcolm said: ‘I'd like to think the knighthood is not just for political longevity but for the work with deaf charities. I got into that because of my daughter and hopefully it's of benefit to them.’

Adrian Clark OBE

Adrian Clark, a member of our Advisory Group in Wales has been awarded an OBE in the recent birthday honours list in recognition of his work within financial services.

Adrian played a key role in the success of our recent Gala event in Wales, attracting corporate support and raising the profile of the event.

Liz Jones reveals how she is finally tackling her hearing loss

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:32:22 +0100

This article originally appeared in The Daily Mail (External link, opens new window). Picture and text copyright The Daily Mail.

I don’t know when I became deaf. There wasn’t a moment of realisation. No one spotted there was anything wrong: not parents or teachers. They thought I was shy. I thought I was stupid.

My world of blurry sounds, surprises and lack of understanding was normal. As a child, I had several painful ear infections. I sat up all night with a warm flannel and hot tears but no one thought to investigate. I caught measles, badly, aged 11. No alarms went off but if they had, I wouldn’t have heard them.

Fast-forward 40-odd years and I’m in Specsavers in Exeter, in a room at the back called a Hearing Centre. And even though I’ve lived with being unable to hear properly for a very long time, today is the worst day by far – the one that makes me realise I’m disabled.

The audiologist is showing me my two hearing aids. I’d expected them to be almost invisible but the one for the right ear is red, the left is blue.

The tip – the bit that will be seen by others as it nestles in the canal of my ear – is flesh-coloured, like something someone very old would wear. A tiny aerial protrudes from each. I’m told I also need a special device fitted to my mobile phone, otherwise I will get nasty feedback. I start to feel tearful.

‘Now,’ says the audiologist sitting next to a graph of my hearing and adjusting each device while I hold them in my hot hands. ‘If you leave them in the box with the battery in, the battery will run out. It will last only five or six days, anyway.’

I now feel like Mrs Richards in Fawlty Towers. ‘And they will whistle if you shut them away without taking the battery out first. They will whistle to warn you the battery is about to run out.’

'This is a disaster'

I am going to whistle. This is a disaster. ‘What will I hear that I can’t hear now?’ I ask him. ‘Um, crickets?’ he said. Useful.

‘And you have to be very careful about hygiene.’ He shows me little brushes and pokey wire things, as if I have just taken possession of a tobacco pipe rather than a £1,995 digital device.

I have to use these to clean the aids each night as ‘the ear, thinking it is being invaded by a foreign object, will produce extra wax. So you have to clean your ears carefully’.

A lot of extra wax. I am going to have seeping ears and on top of that will whistle at inopportune moments. I will have to take my aids out at night and clean them, like false teeth. I can’t do this.

I have become used to being deaf. I manage. I know situations I can cope with, and those I can’t. I can go to the cinema as it’s so loud, but I gave up on theatre in 1982.

'I couldn’t follow conversations'

As a teenager out in a crowd, I couldn’t follow conversations so I just sat on the periphery, mute. I can’t talk to anyone in the passenger seat when I’m driving as I can’t see their mouth to lipread.

As I lip-read a lot, I tend not to meet anyone for dinner somewhere dark. I remember on an early date with my future husband (I didn’t tell him I was deaf), we sat in a garden in Tuscany, talking. As it got darker, I became more and more deaf – he thought I was drunk.

When I became a boss on a magazine in 1990, I always kept a keen junior by my side who would translate. As an editor in 1998, during meetings my PA would sit at my elbow, telling me all that was going on, sometimes passing notes.

I avoid situations that floor me. Parties, dinner parties and anything in the gloom. But sometimes I have to show up because of my job. When I was asked to interview the designer Barbara Hulanicki and told by her PA that the venue would be the Wolseley in London’s Piccadilly, my hands started to sweat.

Big, noisy brasseries are my nemesis and I was forced to sit opposite her, desperately trying to read her mouth. It was only later when I read the transcript of the interview (I employ someone to do this for me) that I understood a word.

At a leaving dinner for a colleague not long ago, I couldn’t hear a word of the speeches. The super-bright companion on my right, whom I’d never met (I’m better with people I know well, as it takes time to ‘tune in’), must have thought I was insane, as I kept having vague stabs at answering him.

He soon, thank goodness, turned to his right and left me in my stew of half-caught gossip and jokes that for me never ever have a punchline.

But faced with the man in Specsavers, I realise I quite enjoy quiet my world, in a way. It has defined who I am: definitely not a show-off. Being deaf has also made me discriminating: can I really be bothered to sit opposite that person for four hours? When you have to ask for something to be repeated, and stare at their lips, and puzzle, you have to be pretty damn sure that what is going to come out of their mouth is interesting.

'Being deaf is isolating'

I know I flatten jokes and kill the mood. Being deaf is isolating. It has made me seem more irritable than I really am. I have to concentrate all the time, which means I’m never laughing or nonchalant.

Unlike a person in a wheelchair or the blind, the deaf seem to antagonise everyone around them, who then shout and get exasperated.

On assignment in Africa, the photographer, having watched me conducting interviews with refugees using my two translators (one to talk to the starving Somali mums and translate their replies into English, another to translate his heavily accented words to me), said: ‘I wonder how you can do your job at all. You’re hopeless.’

Being deaf is dangerous, too. Out on my horse, I can’t hear if a car or tractor is coming (thank God I had laser eye surgery only a few years ago. My sight was almost destroyed by measles, too). In Paris not long ago, I was almost run over.

So, finally, I decided I would at least investigate the options, find out just how compromised I really am. I went to Specsavers for a hearing test.

I wore earphones while a lovely woman called Sofia Patel played a series of sounds in each ear. I thought I was doing well, pressing buttons when I heard a beep, until she showed me the graph of my hearing on her screen.

'Each ear was exactly the same'

Each ear was exactly the same, with a rapidly descending arc. She told me I have no hearing at all in the higher register of decibels: these are sounds such as consonants, which is why I always think people are mumbling.

I have ‘severe’ hearing loss. The only stage worse is ‘profound’: someone who is completely deaf.

Sofia was also able to answer a question that has plagued me for years. Why do I go completely deaf in stressful situations, such as when I’m lost and asking directions?

She said it was because when I am stressed, my brain is occupied with coping. Blood supply to my brain goes elsewhere – to my limbs and lungs. And so my brain can no longer fill in the blanks of what I’m hearing. It’s self-perpetuating.

Holding the printout of my hearing is strangely comforting. I now realise I didn’t understand the plot of a certain film not because I’m stupid but due to the fact I’m deaf.

I had thought I’d walk away with my aids there and then, but nothing in my life is that simple. First I must have my ears vacuumed by my GP so the canal is clean. I return a week later to have a mould made of my ear canal, so that the aids can be custom-made.

'Your brain has to learn how to listen'

A couple of weeks later still, I’m in that terrible room in Exeter being told I will whistle and secrete gunk. The aids are put in. My head feels full, as though I’m under water. The audiologist’s voice sounds tinny. ‘That’s normal,’ he says. ‘You are hearing the upper registers.’ I am also told that I will not be able to hear normally for some time. ‘For every year you have been deaf, it will take a month to adjust. Your brain has to learn how to listen.

‘You have to learn to blot out background noise, and hear only what’s important.’ This is called ‘auditory rehabilitation’.

I tell him I only want to wear the aids when out riding and when doing an interview. I don’t want to be disabled and wear something flesh-coloured. What if I’m on a date and get nuzzled? (Not likely, but still . . .)

‘It doesn’t work like that,’ he says. ‘You have to wear them for a couple of hours each day and increase the time incrementally.

After a week, you must wear them all the time, taking them out only in the shower and in bed. Your brain won’t adapt otherwise.’

I tell him I don’t want them. ‘But if you leave getting an aid until you are almost completely deaf, your brain will never adapt. You will exist in total silence,’ he replies.

I start to hate him. I have to return in a couple of weeks to have them adjusted (ie turned up a bit, as 100 per cent hearing will come as a shock if it happens all at once).

I go home, the aids lurking in their box. Specsavers has helped change the way people see spectacles: they are now a fashion item, designed by Armani and Prada. It wants the same thing to happen to hearing aids, but they’ll never be made by Tom Ford.

'I'm watching TV without subtitles'

Back home, I put them in. I keep putting them in upside-down. I watch Now, Voyager, which is too old to have subtitles. I still can’t understand a word. Maybe I’m stupid after all. I can hear my own voice, though, and it sounds, apparently, as others hear me. I hate it and so talk even less.

I can’t eat wearing an aid as the crunching is deafening. Walking my dogs, the wind whistles so loudly that I feel as though I’m at sea. But I persevere. Barring a hairdresser on a photoshoot, who knocks one of them out by mistake, no one notices the devices. After two weeks, I’m watching TV without subtitles.

Lunch with a colleague in a brasserie is slightly easier, but I still need to lip-read, though the hearing-aid man says it will get better. Later, I go out for dinner with a friend. As she kisses me goodbye, she says, ‘Well done, Lizzie. That was so much more fun!’

'Being deaf is who I am'

But still, I don’t know that the world is worth hearing. Maybe birdsong, which has come as a revelation. But chatter and gossip? Loud beeping from impatient male drivers behind me? Muzak in lifts? All these sounds are now like uninvited guests in my brain. I prefer my quiet, soft bubble in a way. Being deaf is who I am.

Read our magazine

This article also appeared in the Action on Hearing Loss magazine, which is available to all members. Become a member today.

Cracking Christmas Cards available to support UK Hearing Loss Charity

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:13:13 +0100

Action on Hearing Loss is delighted to have been chosen as one of the charities to benefit from Christmas cards sold by funkypigeon.com.

The wonderful array of cards can be purchased online (external link, opens new window), with 20% of the price of each card sold donated to Action on Hearing Loss. All sixteen of the available cards can be personalised to make your loved ones feel even more special during the festive period.

Anna Pharoah, Action on Hearing Loss Corporate Partnership Executive said: "We are really excited about the partnership with funkypigeon.com(external link, opens new window) and value their support.

Their donation will help the charity’s pioneering projects, services and biomedical research improving the everyday lives of people with hearing loss or tinnitus."

To buy Christmas cards which will raise awareness and funds for Action on Hearing Loss, visit funkypigeon.com(external link, opens new window).

Contact for general media enquiries:

Gorki Duhra, PR Officer at Action on Hearing Loss, telephone: 020 7296 8057, email: gorki.duhra@hearingloss.org.uk or @hearinglosspr.

Notes to Editors

Action on Hearing Loss is the charity working for a world where hearing loss doesn't limit or label people, where tinnitus is silenced – and where people value and look after their hearing.
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.

Hollyoaks actress Rachel Shenton joins Slimming World team to bolt up the BT Tower

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:06:57 +0100

Passionate actress Rachel Shenton climbed the iconic BT Tower with a team of fundraisers from Slimming World to raise vital funds and awareness for Action on Hearing Loss.

Lisa Salmon, Slimming World’s National Manager, and her colleagues joined Rachel, who plays Mitzee, the femme fatale in awarding winning Channel 4 Soap Hollyoaks, in completing the climb to support the charity’s pioneering projects transforming the everyday lives of deaf and hard of hearing people.

Lisa said: ‘When Action on Hearing Loss approached us we thought the climb was a perfect opportunity not only to something for charity, but also a great team building activity. We are delighted to support a charity which does such inspirational work supporting people who have hearing loss or tinnitus.’

Rachel, 24, who congratulated the Slimming World Team when they completed the challenge says: ‘I loved climbing up the BT Tower and seeing the amazing sights of London, but more importantly it was great to see so many people join me in completing the challenge to support the charity’s great work helping people with a hearing loss.

‘I was quite young when my dad lost his hearing, which inspired me to train in BSL as an interpreter and work within the deaf community. Action on Hearing Loss is a charity that shares my passion to improve the lives of people who are deaf or hard of hearing.’

For information about Action on Hearing Loss’s fundraising events, call telephone: 0845 634 0687, email: events@hearingloss.org.uk or visit our fundraising pages.

Contact for general media enquiries:

Gorki Duhra, PR Officer at Action on Hearing Loss, telephone: 020 7296 8057, email: gorki.duhra@hearingloss.org.uk or @hearinglosspr.

Notes to Editors:

Jpeg of the Slimming World Team completing the BT Tower Climb
Action on Hearing Loss is the charity working for a world where hearing loss doesn't limit or label people, where tinnitus is silenced – and where people value and look after their hearing.
Slimming World is an advanced slimming organisation in the UK and for more information, please visit http://www.slimmingworld.com (external link, opens new window)
For information about all of Action on Hearing Loss’s fundraising events, call telephone: 0845 634 0687, email: events@hearingloss.org.uk or visit www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/fundraising
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.

Deaf cat Sandy seeks a deaf owner

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 14:39:55 Z

We are lending a helping paw in finding an elderly deaf cat a purrfect home.

Joining forces with Caterham, Redhill and East Surrey Cats Protection, we are seeking a loving owner for 16 year-old Sandy, who due to her deafness can be quite loud without meaning to be, including in the early hours of the morning. She would strongly suit someone who is deaf and can offer a home where there are no other pets or small children – and no immediate neighbours!

Branch Co-ordinator of Caterham, Redhill and East Surrey Cats Protection, Jacky Eyres, said: “Sandy is a sweet girl who came to us as a stray, desperate for love and a home. She would make a fantastic house cat as she snoozes most of the day away but would like her owner to be around a lot of the time. It would be the cat’s whiskers to see her find a home to call her own.”

Can you offer a lap to this gentle moggy? Email eastsurreycats@yahoo.co.uk to find out more.

Contact for general media enquiries:

Nicki Elworthy, Junior PR Officer, email: nicki.elworthy@hearingloss.org.uk, telephone: 020 7296 8137.

Notes for Editors:

High resolution jpeg images of Sandy are available.
Action on Hearing Loss is the charity working for a world where hearing loss doesn’t limit or label people, where tinnitus is silenced - and where people value and look after their hearing.
For further information about Action on Hearing Loss or to become a member, visit www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk, contact our Information Line on telephone: 0808 808 0123 (freephone) or 0808 808 9000 (textphone) or email informationline@hearingloss.org.uk.

Charity Urges Deaf or Hard of Hearing Council Election Candidates to Apply for Financial Support

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:54:00 Z

Candidates could be eligible for support from the Access to Elected Office for Disabled People Fund.

We're urging people who are deaf or hard of hearing and considering standing in the upcoming local council elections in May to find out if they are eligible for financial support from the Access to Elected Office for Disabled People Fund.

People with disabilities who are able to show they have been involved in or are interested in politics, civic or community activities can now apply for up to £20,000 a year of funding to help pay for communication support, assistive equipment or transport not required by other candidates applying to a political party for selection, or standing for election.

The new limit is an increase on the £10,000 per applicant available in previous years after the Government Equalities Office found the funding was not sufficient for people who need a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Communication support

Election candidates who are hard of hearing can apply for funding to cover the expense of communication support, like lipspeakers, notetakers or BSL interpreters. The fund can also cover partial or rental costs of technology – such as speech-to-text reporters, or electronic notetakers – to enable them to follow discussions or hustings during the election campaign.

Chief Executive of Action on Hearing Loss, Paul Breckell, says: “The upcoming local council elections are a great platform for people with hearing loss to campaign for public services in their local community to be fully accessible for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. We urge anyone with hearing loss thinking of standing for election to ensure they apply to the Access to Elected Office for Disabled People Fund for funding to ensure their individual communication needs are met during their campaign.”

Helen Grant, Minister for Women and Equalities said: “The Government wants to breakdown the physical, financial and cultural barriers that prevent talented people from playing their part in political life. That is why we have introduced the Access to Elected Office for Disabled People Fund which is an important step towards levelling the playing field.”

Find our more

For more information, visit http://www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/elect

Contact for general media enquiries:

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

Notes to Editors

For information about Action on Hearing Loss’s communication support, call telephone: 0845 685 8000, textphone: 0845 685 8001 email: communication.services@hearingloss.org.uk
Action on Hearing Loss is the charity working for a world where hearing loss doesn't limit or label people, where tinnitus is silenced – and where people value and look after their hearing.
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

40 parliamentarians back charitys call to protect local services providing vital support for their constituents with tinnitus

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:51:04 Z

Parliamentarians are backing our campaign calling for vital local services supporting tinnitus sufferers to be safeguarded

The parliamentarians gave their support to Action on Hearing Loss’s call on NHS commissioners to protect essential services, such as hearing therapy and ear, nose and throat (ENT) treatments which help people manage tinnitus in their everyday lives.

Understanding tinnitus

During the charity’s parliamentary event marking Tinnitus Awareness Week (4-10 February 2013), the parliamentarians gained a better understanding of tinnitus by hearing a series of simulations recreating the unpleasant ringing, whistling, humming or buzzing sounds which people say represents their experiences of the condition in their head or ears.

The parliamentarians also checked the volume at which they listen to their personal music players by having the sound levels tested on Action on Hearing Loss’s Sound Head. All new personal music players in the EU will have a safe default volume of 85 decibels from this month onwards and the charity is encouraging people not to the override the setting.

Chief Executive of Action on Hearing Loss, Paul Breckell, says: “As tinnitus is an invisible condition, its distressing effects are often not recognised, or underestimated by friends and family.

"We are grateful for the parliamentarians’ support for our campaigning during Tinnitus Awareness Week and highlighting the need for their constituents to protect their hearing and have access to essential information and support if they develop this distressing condition.”

For information about Tinnitus Awareness Week, visit www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/taw

Contact for media enquiries:

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

Notes to Editors

A high resolution jpeg image of [name] MP having his/her personal music player tested by Action on Hearing Loss’s sound head at the charity’s parliamentary Tinnitus Awareness Week event is available.
Action on Hearing Loss 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.
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.

Calls for GPs to provide equal treatment for patients with hearing loss

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 09:36:42 Z

We are calling on GPs to substantially improve their communication with patients with hearing loss following research which found 28% of respondents had been unclear about a diagnosis during a GP appointment.

A new report entitled 'Access all areas?' found patients who felt unclear after a consultation attributed the misunderstandings to their GP not facing them (64%) and not always speaking clearly (57%). The findings suggest a severe lack of deaf awareness among GPs which could easily be resolved through training and making simple adjustments.

We are also urging GP surgeries to have clear procedures in place to record details of patients’ hearing loss and their individual communication needs after finding that only 39% of respondents have this vital information recorded.

Equality

Under the Equality Act 2010, GP surgeries must make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to be accessible to people with disabilities and ensure that the 10 million people in the UK who have hearing loss experience the same level of service as other patients.

Chief Executive of Action on Hearing Loss, Paul Breckell, said: “It’s disappointing that many people with hearing loss have difficulty understanding vital health advice because GPs aren’t meeting individual communication needs. With deaf awareness training and simple changes, GPs can provide a much better service for patients who are deaf or hard of hearing and help avoid unnecessary follow-up appointments or the risk of exacerbated poor health.”

Recommendations

Action on Hearing Loss encourages GP surgeries to be more accessible by following the charity’s deaf awareness tips:

keep a note that the patient has a hearing loss on their record and check how they would prefer to make an appointment. The surgery should enable patients to contact them by email, textphone or SMS as well as by telephone.
ensure GPs and staff are trained in basic deaf awareness and realise that they may need to approach patients to let them know it’s time for the appointment.
make sure there is good lighting (so that you can be lipread) and little or no background noise in your consultation room.
make sure you have the patient’s attention before you speak and check whether they understand what you’re saying. If not, say it in a different way.
face the person so you can be lipread and speak clearly, using plain language, normal lip movements and facial expressions.
install a hearing loop in reception for hearing aid wearers, and regularly check that it’s working and staff are trained how to use it. Don’t raise your voice as it’s uncomfortable for hearing aid users.
provide a registered sign language interpreter for people who communicate by British Sign Language (BSL).

Find out more information on improving deaf awareness and access for people with hearing loss.

Download the Access all Areas?(external link, opens new window) report (PDF, 531kb).

You can download a free PDF viewer(external link, opens new window) from the Adobe website.

Contact for general media enquiries:

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

Notes for editors:

Action on Hearing Loss conducted a survey of the charity’s research panel members in April 2012 to explore the experiences of people with hearing loss when accessing healthcare. The research panel consists of 900 people and has representation from individuals with different levels of hearing loss and tinnitus, across a range of demographic characteristics. 607 panel members responded to the survey.
Action on Hearing Loss offers a charter mark, Louder than Words, which is awarded to organisations showing best practice for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. The charity also offers Deaf Awareness Training for individuals and businesses. For more information, visit www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk or contact telephone: 0161 276 2312, textphone: 0161 276 2316 or email: training.services@hearingloss.org.uk
Action on Hearing Loss is the charity working for a world where hearing loss doesn't limit or label people, where tinnitus is silenced – and where people value and look after their hearing.
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

Action on Hearing Loss congratulates Vice President on his Knighthood

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 09:01:36 Z

Action on Hearing Loss congratulates the charity’s Vice President, the Right Honourable Malcolm Bruce MP, on the Knighthood he received on 21 November 2012 in recognition of his services to Public and Political Service.

Image: RT Hon Sir Malcolm Bruce MP. Image courtesy of www.malcolmbruce.org.uk(opens in new window)

Chief Executive of Action on Hearing Loss, Paul Breckell, said: “Sir Malcolm is a great champion of our cause and fully deserves this honour for his dedicated, long-standing work improving the everyday lives of people who are deaf or hard of hearing across the UK.”

Sir Malcolm, who has a deaf daughter, served on the Board of Trustees at RNID between 2003 - 2009 and became Vice President in April 2010.

Sir Malcolm is Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Deafness and has campaigned in Parliament on issues such as the legal status of British Sign Language (BSL) and calling for improved television and cinema subtitling. He has hosted many events for Action on Hearing Loss in Parliament, including a Deaf Awareness Week reception, a reception marking the charity’s centenary, rebrand and launch of the ‘Hearing Matters’ report, as well as a parliamentary dinner to launch the ‘A World of Silence’ report on care homes’ support for residents with hearing loss.

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:

Action on Hearing Loss is the charity working for a world where hearing loss doesn't limit or label people, where tinnitus is silenced – and where people value and look after their hearing.
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.

Community and social groups invited to make hearing loss the talk of the town

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:05:17 Z

Action on Hearing Loss is inviting community groups, social clubs and faith organisations to book one of the charity’s free volunteer speakers and help raise local awareness about hearing loss.

The charity has volunteers available to speak about how you can spot and address hearing loss, and how hearing aids can help improve communication with friends, family and colleagues. The speakers can also provide tips about the best ways to communicate with someone who has difficulty hearing, as well as sign-posting products and services which can help deaf or hard of hearing people in their everyday lives.

Action on Hearing Loss’s, Joanne Pickard, says: “Losing your hearing can be very difficult and frustrating but there is a lot of support available. Our volunteers will be delighted to speak at local groups across the country to raise awareness about the importance of looking after your hearing, taking quick action to address hearing loss as well as the benefits of hearing aids, lipreading and assistive equipment.”

For more details, call telephone: 020 7296 8092 or email: joanne.pickard@hearingloss.org.uk

Anybody who is concerned about their hearing are urged to take Action on Hearing Loss’s five-minute hearing check. The check, which can be accessed by visiting www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/check, calling 0844 800 3838, assesses the ability to hear someone speaking with background noise – similar to being in a crowded room.

Contact for general media enquiries:

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

Notes for editors:

Calls to Action on Hearing Loss’s telephone hearing check from a BT landline cost up to 5p per minute. Other providers' charges may vary. Call set up charge may apply.
Action on Hearing Loss is the charity working for a world where hearing loss doesn't limit or label people, where tinnitus is silenced – and where people value and look after their hearing.
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

Christmas gift ideas which can transform the everyday lives of people with hearing loss

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 15:01:17 Z

If you know someone with hearing loss, why not buy them a Christmas gift that will make a huge difference to their life.

The UK’s largest hearing loss charity, Action on Hearing Loss has just launched a new catalogue filled with ingenious and innovative products that provide practical solutions to transform the lives of people who are hard of hearing.

Here are some hand-picked gems that will come in handy over Christmas and way beyond, and there are oodles more in their new catalogue.

T436 M6000 Mobile Phone

Buy a loved one with a hearing loss an amplified mobile phone which

provides clearer sound when used with the T setting on hearing aids, so that they are not out of the loop with any festive activities. This model is excellent at reducing interference and also has Bluetooth. The phone can be used hands-free, and has added features such as an alarm, an emergency SOS facility, and much more. £58.32 (Ex. VAT)

A263BLK LightOn

Don’t miss any calls or texts when you take your mobile out of your pocket during the festive season. The ingenious LightOn mobile alert flashes to tell you someone has called or sent a text. Simply pop any mobile phone in the battery powered holder and set your mobile to vibrate when you receive a call or text. The vibration will then make the LightOn flash to tell you that someone is trying to contact you. £33.00 (Not VAT exempt)

L343 Conversor Pro

This handy gadget helps hearing aid users hear conversations and the TV better. It consists of a microphone that amplifies sound and a neckloop that you wear to reduce background noise and make sound even clearer. The transmitter sends amplified sound from up to 25 metres away. So it can be worn by a speaker in a lecture or classroom, to help people with a hearing loss hear them better, for example. £249.00 (Ex. VAT)

Ordering your Christmas gifts from their online shop or catalogue couldn’t be easier - there’s even a 28 day money back guarantee and many products are VAT exempt. And when you buy from Action on Hearing Loss you help to support their wider work with people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

All of the above Christmas gift ideas and much more are available to purchase online at http://www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/shop, via mail order and by phone on 01733 361199 or textphone 01733 238020.

Contact for general media enquiries:

Gorki Duhra, PR Officer at Action on Hearing Loss, telephone: 020 7296 8057, email gorki.duhra@hearingloss.org.uk or @hearinglosspr

Notes to Editors

Action on Hearing Loss is the charity working for a world where hearing loss doesn't limit or label people, where tinnitus is silenced – and where people value and look after their hearing.
Action on Hearing Loss provides life changing products for people with hearing loss and tinnitus, as well as products to help people protect their hearing. They offer a 28-day money back guarantee on most products.
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.
For a copy of the Solutions catalogue contact our their products team on telephone 01733 361199, textphone 01733 238020 or email solutions@hearingloss.org.uk or order a copy online at http://www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/shop

Enjoy the sparks but avoid the ringing in your ears this Bonfire night

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:39:08 Z

The UK’s largest hearing loss charity Action on Hearing Loss is appealing to parents during Bonfire celebrations to think about their children’s hearing.

Exposure to loud noise above 85 decibels over time can cause permanent hearing damage. We all know fireworks are lovely to watch, but can be a pain to listen to, with some reaching an uncomfortable 155 decibels.

Action on Hearing Loss recommends that when children - whose hearing is particularly sensitive - are listening to loud noises like at fireworks displays, festivals, and concerts they should wear ear defenders. The hearing loss charity has the hippest ear defenders to protect kids from long term damage and tinnitus.

The Action on Hearing Loss children’s ear defenders reduce harmful loud noises without shutting out other ambient sounds (and your voice!) and weigh just 140g! They’re available in red or lime green.

Mark Catling, Action on Hearing Loss Head of Products, says: ‘We all enjoy watching fireworks on Bonfire night and with these, comfortable, light-weight ear defenders, parents can be safe in the knowledge that their children can watch the firework displays without the uncomfortable loud noises. They're also useful if you take your children to festivals and other music events.’

The Action on Hearing Loss ear defenders (£11.22) are available from Action on Hearing Loss at http://www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/shop or 01733 361199.

Contact for general media enquiries:

Gorki Duhra, PR Officer at Action on Hearing Loss, telephone: 020 7296 8057, email gorki.duhra@hearingloss.org.uk or @hearinglosspr.

Notes to editors:

High resolution jpeg image of Action on Hearing Loss ear defenders is available.
The Hearing Check is designed to be the best method of checking for sensorineural hearing loss (due to age or noise exposure for instance) without seeing a medical professional. It will not pick up problems with your outer or middle ear (conductive hearing losses).
Action on Hearing Loss is the charity working for a world where hearing loss doesn't limit or label people, where tinnitus is silenced – and where people value and look after their hearing.
Tinnitus is a medical term to describe noise(s) that people can hear in one ear, both ears or in the head – such as ringing, buzzing or whistling. The sounds heard can vary from person to person, but the common link is that they do not have an external source.
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

Celebrating the life and genius of Eric Sykes

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 14:56:54 +0100

Comedy legend Eric Sykes CBE passed away today at the age of 89.

With show business legends such as Bruce Forsyth and Stephen Fry paying glowing tributes on Twitter, we thought we’d celebrate Eric’s brilliance by republishing an interview from a 2006 edition of our members magazine….

Dramatic comeback

Comedian, actor and author Eric Sykes is one of the hardest working people in show business. Dawn Dimond meets a national institution.

When I last interviewed Eric Sykes 12 years ago the idea of retirement made him visibly wince. “I’ll only stop when I feel I’m not good enough anymore or there’s no more hills to climb,” he stated. But for a man of then-71, combatting rapidly deteriorating eyesight in addition to his well-documented deafness, it seemed a fair assumption that we’d seen the best – if not the last – of a consummate comedian.

Well, it’s a good job I’m not a betting woman. Eric Sykes is enjoying a quietly astonishing career renaissance with eyecatching turns in recent premier league films, including The Others with Nicole Kidman and the latest Harry Potter instalment. He’s also appeared onstage in productions ranging from Shakespeare’s As You Like It to the hit West End farce Caught in the Net.

Then there’s the straight roles in a glut of TV stalwarts such as The Bill and Holby City. His autobiography, If I Don’t Write it Nobody Else Will, published last year, enjoyed six weeks at the top of the bestseller lists and next month comes out in paperback with a gruelling round of personal appearances and signings planned, including a prestigious platform at the National Theatre. “The last few years have been the most successful of my whole career – which is rather amazing isn’t it?” he says with some understatement.

So has the move into straight acting been a deliberate one?

“I didn’t seek the dramatic roles but they were offered to me and I found my acting had improved since I was in rep 40 years ago,” he smiles. “Sir Peter Hall came to me about appearing in As You Like It. I’m unable to read scripts now but he put my part on cassette for me to learn. Who better to do that for you than one of our foremost Shakespearean scholars? But twice nightly onstage is now a bridge too far for me so films and TV are what I’m concentrating on.

“I’ve always maintained that a comedian is better at playing character parts than any good straight actor,” he adds.

“A comedian’s main concern is the audience”

“A comedian’s main concern is the audience, so all your antennae are out for their reaction. Straight actors, however, are playing the part in their own mind. They’re sitting in the fourth row of the stalls watching their own performance.

“But I still find comedy a better challenge myself – if I drop a few clangers then I can get myself out if it!”

His current workload is impressive for any 83-year-old and, with dual sensory loss, it must be an uphill struggle at times.

His hearing began to go as a young man in the war – exacerbated by the noise in Normandy – and he had an operation in 1952 and another 10 years later. When he woke up in hospital profoundly deaf, his first thought was that he’d never hear his children’s voices again.

“The next few days were horrendous. Then, one morning, I said to the nurse, ‘Listen to that rain’. We both did a double take – I had some hearing back!”

His career continued unchecked with Eric making the most of his residual hearing. He remembers that on Sykes (his eponymous TV show which entertained the nation for 20 years and is still the longest-running TV comedy), that he had difficulty hearing the lines of his co-star and friend Hattie Jacques.

“I was wearing in-the-ear aids for a while but they caused me such problems. During one recording, as well as trying to listen to Hat, I also had the producer’s instructions to the cameramen coming through my aids at the same time!

“Although my hearing has deteriorated over the years, my listening devices have improved tremendously,” he says. His trademark glasses are, in fact, bone conduction hearing aids which vibrate against his skull. He’s never bothered to put lenses in them.

When we last met, Eric was insistent that his deafness was not a blight on his life. “These things are all challenges really,” he said. “They’re sent along to see how you cope with them. Otherwise I don’t think I could have believed how good, how candy floss, my life was.”

Never sought limelight

His sight loss began 16 years ago, the result of macular degeneration (when the back of the eyes wear out). He admits that this made it “hardgoing” when it came to writing his recent autobiography.

“Yes, I’d often work into the night and, in all, it took two years to get it finished. I can’t see to read stuff anymore and I can only write in capitals on paper. I’d send it off for typing and then my assistant would read it back to me so I could make changes. Then it would be put on computer and read back to me again – it was a very cumbersome process and the two ladies who did the typing for me are still undergoing counselling!”

But the Herculean effort has paid off and he says he is “thrilled and surprised that it seems to have struck such a chord with the public”.

So what made him decide to write it now? “Well, I never wanted to write an autobiography as I’ve never sought out the limelight. But when Spike died, [he and Spike Milligan shared an office and the same manager] a scurrilous article appeared by someone purporting to be his biographer. Neither Spike nor Norma, our manager, had ever met this man! So Norma said to me, ‘Do you want this to happen to you when you die?’”

The epic result takes us from the start when Eric’s mother died giving birth to him. His father, a labourer in Oldham’s cotton mills, farmed the young Eric out to neighbours’ care. It must have been a tough and lonely start in life but he soon found that he had a gift for making people laugh. During his wartime service he joined the entertainment corps and, by mixing with comedy muckers like Denis Norden, Spike Milligan and Bill Fraser, found a niche in post-war British comedy.

Turning his hand to writing, he was given his big break by the legendary Frankie Howerd and within a few years was the top comedy writer in the country. His string of hits included the Goon Shows, a series for Tony Hancock and, of course, his own long-running TV show.

The mother he never knew in life is, he maintains, his guardian angel to this day.

“Her guidance has always pushed me in the right direction. If I sometimes feel that the fire in me is going out, then there’s a phone call and within a few weeks I’m on another film set.”

He will cautiously admit to having “a few more film roles in the pipeline” but makes it a rule not to speak of work until the contract is signed. “I’m superstitious,” he says, showing me a handful of lucky talismans he always carries with him. So is retirement still nowhere on his agenda?

“I can’t stop – my brain won’t let me. Sometimes it even stops me sleeping. Being a writer, I just have to write. Even without a pen in my hand, I write in my head. I would hate to sit at home with my brain working and not be able to do anything about it. So I come to the office very week and I find it energising. It’s a quality that keeps me alive.

“When that reaper fellow with the lantern in his hand comes to my window and he’s crooking a finger at me, I will say to him ‘I’m not ready!’ – I hope!”

This article was originally published in the April / May 2006 edition of the Action on Hearing Loss magazine.

Are you concerned about your hearing?

Take our free online hearing check or ask our audiologist about the science behind hearing loss.

Hearing loss charity warns tennis fans that Wimbledon players grunting could damage hearing

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 14:33:34 +0100

Action on Hearing Loss is issuing a warning to tennis fans heading to Wimbledon to pack earplugs to protect their ears from excessive grunts and shrieks from the players.

Exposure to loud noise above 85 decibels over time can cause permanent hearing damage and some players, such as Victoria Azarenka, exceed 105 decibels. Wearing earplugs protects your hearing by keeping loud noises out without shutting out other ambient noises.

Action on Hearing Loss Audiologist Gemma Twitchen, says: ‘Prolonged exposure to loud noises can damage your hearing, with some grunts being recorded as loud as a chainshaw. The Wimbledon Tennis Association is aiming to introduce a gruntometer to record these levels in the hope of cutting the noise down in the future. To avoid tinnitus or hearing loss, play it safe and wear earplugs. At the very least you’ll enjoy a quieter game!’

Action on Hearing Loss is encouraging all tennis fans to look after their hearing and take the charity’s hearing check by visiting www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/check or calling 0844 800 3838.

Contact for general media enquiries:

Gorki Duhra, PR Officer at Action on Hearing Loss, telephone: 020 7296 8057 or email: gorki.duhra@hearingloss.org.uk.

Notes to editors:

Action on Hearing Loss is the charity working for a world where hearing loss doesn't limit or label people, where tinnitus is silenced – and where people value and look after their hearing.
Tinnitus is a medical term to describe noise(s) that people can hear in one ear, both ears or in the head – such as ringing, buzzing or whistling. The sounds heard can vary from person to person, but the common link is that they do not have an external source.
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.

New advertising campaign highlights the isolating impact of hearing loss on family life

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 10:11:52 +0100

Take quick action

Action on Hearing Loss is launching a multi-channel advertising campaign to highlight the isolating impact of hearing loss on family life and encourage people aged 55 or over with age-related hearing loss to take quick action when they notice a problem.

The campaign’s ‘Is hearing loss affecting your family?’ adverts feature family snaps that have been split up to reflect the isolation felt by both the person with a hearing loss and their loved ones. Between 25 June and 8 July, the adverts, which will drive people to take Action on Hearing Loss’s online or telephone hearing check and seek information support from the charity, will appear on billboards, bus shelters and lift doors in Bristol and across Northern Ireland.

In addition, a 30-second television advert featuring the impacts of hearing loss on the everyday experiences of people with hearing loss will be broadcast on UTV and the Northern Ireland regional advertising slots on Channels 4 and Channel 5 between 2 and 29 July. The adverts are targeted at audiences watching family viewing programmes with the aim of encouraging family conversations about hearing loss.

Hat-trick design consultants conceived the creative execution, which was shot by John Ross and filmmaker Lindsay Knight.

Action on Hearing Loss Chief Executive Jackie Ballard said: “We hope our ‘Isolation’ campaign adverts in Bristol and Northern Ireland have a strong impact on people with age-related hearing loss and their families. It takes, on average, 10 years for people to get their hearing checked and we hope the adverts – including our first television advert since 2005 – encourages people to take quicker action on their hearing loss so that they can maintain their quality of family life.”

Hat-Trick Creative Director Jim Sutherland said: “We wanted to try and visualise the feeling of being isolated and separated from your family. It is incredibly sad that you can miss on the joys of conversation and involvement with your partner, children and grandchildren. For us, it seemed like a very simple but incredibly poignant visual to physically separate family photos. Using real stories of loss and isolation is a very powerful way of getting the message home, and that it is something that can be resolved with the help of Action on Hearing Loss.”

For information about the isolation campaign, visit www.hearingcheck.org.uk.

Contact for general media enquiries:

Alan Dalziel, Senior PR Officer, telephone: 020 7296 8388 / 07944 038635 or email: alan.dalziel@hearingloss.org.uk.

Notes for editors:

High resolution jpeg images of Action on Hearing Loss’s ‘Isolation’ campaign adverts are available and the television advert appearing in Northern Ireland can be viewed at http://bit.ly/hearingcheckTVad.
The Zimmers, stars of Britain’s Got Talent, will be performing in Bristol city centre on Tuesday 26 June to officially launch the Isolation campaign, whilst the Health Minister, Edwin Poots MLA, will officially launch the campaign in Northern Ireland outside the Stormont Parliament on Thursday 28 June.
Action on Hearing Loss’s hearing check is supported by BT. People can take the check by visiting www.hearingcheck.org.uk or calling 0844 800 3838. Calls cost up to 5p per minute from a BT landline. Other providers' charges may vary. Call set up charge may apply.
Action on Hearing Loss is the charity working for a world where hearing loss doesn't limit or label people, where tinnitus is silenced – and where people value and look after their hearing.
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.

Last few places available for the Great North Run

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 14:09:23 +0100

Special offer – buy one, get one free on registration before 6 July!

Take part in the world’s largest half marathon from Newcastle to South Shields on 16 September and help raise funds vital funds to change the lives of the 10 million people with hearing loss in the UK.

Why run for Action on Hearing Loss?

Join us and help reduce the stigma and isolation attached to hearing loss through support, campaigning and raising awareness.

You can contribute to our ground-breaking biomedical research into treatments for deafness and tinnitus – and we’re working hard towards a cure.

Join our 2012 team

Run for us and we will ensure that you have an experience you'll never forget. You will benefit from our excellent support package, which includes:

a dedicated fundraiser to help you reach, and even exceed your fundraising target
a fundraising pack
a running vest
training and nutrition advice
cheering points along the route
a post-race reception – a few minutes’ walk from the finish line, where you can have a snack, drink and well deserved massage.

We ask all our runners to pledge to raise £350 and pay a registration fee of £40. Don't panic if you've never raised sponsorship before – we'll help you every step of the way and share tips, ideas and the expertise of our fellow fundraisers.

Register for the Great North Run

To claim the buy one, get one free offer, please email events@hearingloss.org.uk or call 020 7296 8172.

Hearing loss charity urges parents to protect their childrens hearing during Child Safety Week

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:44:46 +0100

Action on Hearing Loss is calling on parents to protect their children’s hearing by making sure they wear ear defenders when they are exposed to loud noise during Child Safety Week, which starts today.

Exposure to loud noise above 85 decibels over time can cause permanent hearing damage. Lightweight ear defenders can protect children’s hearing and keep loud noises out without shutting out other ambient noises.

The charity recommends that when children, whose hearing is particularly sensitive, are listening to loud music at festivals or concerts they should wear ear defenders. It’s important that children protect their hearing from long term damage, with the risk of hearing damage increasing with volume and with the length of time spent in the noisy environment.

Mark Catling, Action on Hearing Loss Head of Business and Relationship Development, says: “Anyone who’s seen a child covering their ears at noisy events like concerts and firework displays will recognise that young ears are sensitive to loud noises, ear defenders are a simple way to protect your child’s hearing for the future.”

The hearing loss charity has the hippest ear defenders to protect them from long term damage and tinnitus.They are comfortable to wear, fit children up to the age of seven and are available in stylish red, blue, pink or green.

A full range of colourful ear defenders (from £11.22) are available from Action on Hearing Loss www.hearingloss.org.uk/shop or 01733 361199.

Contact for general media enquiries:

Gorki Duhra, PR Officer at Action on Hearing Loss, telephone: 020 7296 8057 or email: gorki.duhra@hearingloss.org.uk.

Notes to editors:

High resolution jpeg image of an ear defender is available.
The Hearing Check is designed to be the best method of checking for sensorineural hearing loss (due to age or noise exposure for instance) without seeing a medical professional. It will not pick up problems with your outer or middle ear (conductive hearing losses).
Action on Hearing Loss is the charity working for a world where hearing loss doesn't limit or label people, where tinnitus is silenced – and where people value and look after their hearing.
Tinnitus is a medical term to describe noise(s) that people can hear in one ear, both ears or in the head – such as ringing, buzzing or whistling. The sounds heard can vary from person to person, but the common link is that they do not have an external source.
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.

Charity calls for Londoners to wear earplugs when giant vuvuzela rolls into town

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 14:16:23 +0100

Action on Hearing Loss urged Londoners to wear earplugs and protect their hearing against the risks of temporary tinnitus or permanent hearing damage when Paddy Power’s giant vuvuzela rolled into central London this morning (Friday 15 June 2012).

The giant vuvuzela is reported to generate sounds up to 138 decibels, which is louder than a jet plane taking off.

Director of Public Engagement at Action on Hearing Loss, Emma Harrison, says: “138 decibels from a giant vuvuzela certainly attracted the attention of Londoners and we hope it’ll encourage everyone to think about the noise they are exposed to every day. When you could consider the hours of loud music in pubs and clubs that football fans will be enjoying during Euro 2012, we urge everyone to protect themselves with earplugs and enjoy the summer without worrying about experiencing temporary tinnitus or permanent hearing loss.”

For information on earplugs and how to protect your hearing, visit www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk.

Action on Hearing Loss is encouraging Euro 2012 fans to value their hearing and take the charity’s hearing check by visiting www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/check or calling 0844 800 3838.

Contact for general media enquiries:

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

Notes for editors:

A high resolution jpeg image of Action on Hearing Loss’s campaigners with ‘Love Your Ears’ placards as the UK’s biggest vuvuzela arrived at Piccadilly Circus, London is available.
Calls to Action on Hearing Loss’s telephone hearing check from a BT landline cost up to 5p per minute. Other providers' charges may vary. Call set up charge may apply.
Action on Hearing Loss is the charity working for a world where hearing loss doesn't limit or label people, where tinnitus is silenced – and where people value and look after their hearing.
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.

Barbara Dickson OBE on why she won't let tinnitus stop the music

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 10:03:14 +0100

Chris White and Juliet Stephens find out why….

Barbara Dickson has enjoyed 45 years of success in the entertainment industry and continues to be one of the most enduringly popular artists in Britain, with legions of adoring fans. She’s best known as a multi-million selling recording artist, with over 15 albums in the UK charts since 1977, but her talents extend to an Olivier award-winning acting career and Royal approval, no less, with an OBE awarded in 2001 for services to music and drama.

What you may not know is that this folk singer from Dunfermline turned West End star has been living with tinnitus for the past 16 years.

I first got tinnitus in my left ear after a holiday in Spain. I went swimming a lot during the trip and got water in my ear,’ she explains. ‘It was really sore by the end of the holiday and the cabin pressure from the flight home made it worse. The pain was so intense it was unbearable and I had some hearing loss too. When I got back to the UK I went to see the doctor who syringed my ear; the hearing loss went in time but the tinnitus remained.’

Over the years, Barbara’s tinnitus has got worse and, though it is unilateral, (only affecting one ear) she experiences a range of different sounds, including a high-pitch whine and a lot of white noise which she says can be very loud.

'Tried various approaches to managing the condition'

She has tried various approaches to managing the condition, including being fitted with a tinnitus masker – a device that sits in side your ear, giving off low-level white noise. Tinnitus maskers give you an external source of sound to focus on, distracting your brain from tinnitus sounds.

Barbara says that she persevered with this for a number of years with reasonable success, but has found it less useful recently, as her hearing has deteriorated.

‘Now my hearing in the left ear is at a stage that I can’t hear if someone whispers and it can be very hard to distinguish voices when you’re in a room with lots of people talking at once – I rarely go out to restaurants now because the noise can be unbearable.’

'Hearing loss can make some social situations very difficult'

A very familiar experience for many, Barbara adds ‘I hate cocktail parties and avoid them like the plague now. I mean no one in my situation would want to go to those kinds of parties; hearing loss can make some social situations very difficult.’

She prefers smaller groups instead, where she can talk to people one-to-one. ‘If I don’t hear them, I can just say ‘’I’m a bit deaf’’. I’m not ashamed to let people know.’

This refreshingly upbeat attitude stems from her familiarity with people who are deaf. ‘ My mum was very deaf from her 50’s and lived into her 90’s, so all my family knew they’d have to speak in front of her so she could lipread.

'Hearing loss is not shameful, I don’t really understand why there is a stigma attached to it'

Hearing loss is not shameful, I don’t really understand why there is a stigma attached to it. My mother wore a hearing aid for most of her life. I’m not at that stage yet, but if I needed one, then I would get one.’

Barbara has worked in the music industry for decades – it is her passion and life. Obviously she is enormously grateful that her tinnitus has not affected her career and that unlike some of her contemporaries she is still able to hear the frequencies and tune a guitar.

'Music has been my whole life'

‘I just don’t know what I would do if my deafness or tinnitus affected my music’ she says ‘I guess I would have to stop playing and it would be a real psychological challenge to overcome it. Music has been my whole life, I’ve had a music career since I was 17 years old and it would be weird not to do it.’

She says that noise damage is widespread in the music industry. ‘Most musicians I know experience deafness or tinnitus. I’m lucky that as a singer, it’s not quite as bad as someone who plays an instrument but after 45 years on the circuit, all that loud music is going to take its toll.’

She does add that things have changed enormously and there is much greater hearing awareness among professional musicians. ‘When I was gigging in rock clubs in the 1970’s we didn’t have anyone telling us about hearing protection. Nowadays, lots of musicians will be wearing earplugs or using monitors which is great.’

There is an interesting contradiction here because though she acknowledges how culture has changed for music professionals, she observes that things are different for the fans and young people in general.

‘I really fear for this generation growing up – I’ve got three sons aged 21, 23 and 25 and they all blast their MP3 players out, cranked up to top volume without thinking about the damage they’re doing to their hearing.’

This concern has prompted Barbara to support our new Loud Music campaign. As she says, ‘I wish there was more awareness among young people about the dangers of loud music, and that they’d realise there’s no stigma to putting earplugs in your ears. Listening to music with earplugs should be the equivalent of putting suntan lotion on in sunny weather.’

Barbara is currently on tour across the country until October – for details, visit her website: www.barbaradickson.net (external link, opens in new window).

Action on Hearing Loss Magazine

This article was originally published in the Action on Hearing Loss Magazine.

Become a member and you can receive exclusive content through our magazine.

Charity urges Diamond Jubilee party organisers to ensure residents with hearing loss are included in celebrations

Fri, 25 May 2012 15:19:11 +0100

Action on Hearing Loss is urging the organisers of Diamond Jubilee celebrations (2-5 June) to ensure their parties are fully accessible and inclusive of residents who are deaf or hard of hearing.

People with hearing loss can often find it difficult to follow conversations during social occasions – particularly when there is background noise or music – so the charity is promoting deaf awareness tips to help party organisers improve the experience of local residents who have problems hearing.

Chief Executive of Action on Hearing Loss, Jackie Ballard, says: “Hearing loss affects the majority of people who were born on or before Her Majesty The Queen started her reign in 1952, and many avoid big social occasions because they struggle to hear in noisy situations and when speaking with people who are not deaf aware.

“We encourage Diamond Jubilee party organisers to follow our basic deaf awareness tips to ensure friends and neighbours with hearing loss don’t miss out on the weekend’s royal celebrations!”

Action on Hearing Loss is encouraging party organisers to make their event more accessible by following the charity’s deaf awareness tips:

Make sure you have the person’s attention before you start speaking.
Places with good lighting (so that you can be lipread) and little or no background noise are best for conversations.
Face the person so you can be lipread and speak clearly, using plain language, normal lip movements and facial expressions.
Check whether the person understands what you are saying and, if not, try saying it in a different way.
Keep your voice down as it’s uncomfortable for a hearing aid user if you shout and it looks aggressive.

For information about deaf awareness, visit www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk.

If you struggle to hear conversations during social events, take Action on Hearing Loss’s five minute hearing check by visiting www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/check or calling 0844 800 3838.

Contact for general media enquiries:

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

Notes to Editors

Hearing loss affects 55% of people over 60.
Calls to Action on Hearing Loss’s telephone hearing check costs up to 5p per minute from a BT landline. Other providers' charges may vary. Call set up charge may apply.
Action on Hearing Loss is the charity working for a world where hearing loss doesn't limit or label people, where tinnitus is silenced – and where people value and look after their hearing.
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.

Hearing loss charity encourages Diamond Jubilee party organisers to make a right royal fundraising effort

Tue, 22 May 2012 09:04:36 +0100

Action on Hearing Loss is urging organisers of Diamond Jubilee parties (2-5 June) to make a right royal effort to raise vital funds for the charity’s life-changing work for the one in six people who are deaf or have hearing loss.

The call comes as Action on Hearing Loss – founded on 9 June 1911 – crowns off a year of celebrations marking the charity’s centenary. Money raised for Action on Hearing Loss at Diamond Jubilee parties would help pay for the charity’s pioneering projects, services and biomedical research improving the everyday lives of people with hearing loss.

Community Fundraiser at Action on Hearing Loss, Jane Richards, says: “Whether you are organising a Diamond Jubilee party in your garden, street or a community venue, we’d be delighted if you would consider raising essential funds for Action on Hearing Loss during this very special time for Her Majesty The Queen and help us end our centenary celebrations in royal style!”

To get an Action on Hearing Loss fundraising pack for your Diamond Jubilee party, contact telephone: 020 7294 3706 or email: events@hearingloss.org.uk.

Contact for general media enquiries:

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

Notes for editors:

Action on Hearing Loss is proud to have HRH the Duke of Edinburgh as our Patron and HRH Countess of Wessex as our Vice Patron.
Action on Hearing Loss 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.
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.

Get out of your blocks to raise money for the UKs largest deaf charity for an Olympic challenge

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:37:28 Z

Get into the Olympic spirit by challenging yourself to Action on Hearing Loss’s 2012 KM Challenge in partnership with the British Olympic Association and Gold Challenge.

Feel a part of the excitement around London 2012 and take on a challenge that involves covering 2012km, 201.2Km or 20.12Km with the chosen distance covered via running, walking, cycling or by any means of an Olympic sport.

Alaric Shorter from the charity’s Fundraising Team, says: ‘Get into the Olympic spirit and help support the millions of people in the UK with a hearing loss whilst embarking on a memorable challenge that will stay with you as a unique reminder of London 2012.

‘You can cover the distance by taking part in Olympic disciplines such as cycling, horse riding or even windsurfing. Take part with your friends to make it an even more memorable achievement.’

To sign up for Action on Hearing Loss’s 2012 KM Challenge, call telephone: 0845 634 0687, email: events@hearingloss.org.uk or visit www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/fundraising.

Contact for general media enquiries:

Gurinder Duhra, PR Officer at Action on Hearing Loss, telephone: 020 7296 8057 or email: gurinder.duhra@hearingloss.org.uk.

Notes to Editors

Action on Hearing Loss is the new name of RNID. It’s the charity working for a world where hearing loss doesn't limit or label people, where tinnitus is silenced – and where people value and look after their hearing.

For the 2012 KM Challenge, participants are asked to pledge £250 if taking part as an individual or £500 for a team.
Gold Challenge is the charity challenge where you take on Olympic Sports and Paralympic Sports to raise money for charity.
Everyone aged 7 upwards can take part in Gold Challenge as an individual or as part of a team.
Action on Hearing Loss is one of Gold Challenge’s 125 charities in partnership with the British Olympic Association.
Gold Challenge works with the British Olympic Association, Sport England, sportscotland, Sport Wales, ParalympicsGB and the National Governing Bodies of the Olympic and Paralympic sports. It is part of ‘Places People Play’ – the official mass participation legacy programme for London 2012.
For information about all of Action on Hearing Loss’s fundraising events, call telephone: 0845 634 0687, email: events@hearingloss.org.uk or visit www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/fundraising.
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.

Action on Hearing Loss are charity partners for music industry Oscars

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:40:12 Z

We’ve been the chosen charity of the Music Producers Guild (MPG) Awards for the fourth year in a row, as they are big supporters of our music hearing protection campaign.

The awards are the biggest in the music industry for producers, engineers and other creative talents. It’s being held at the glitzy Café De Paris in the West End on February 16 2012 with a whole host of A-list celebrities attending. Last year, Chris Martin, Plan B and Gary Numan all presented awards.

And, every year, Action on Hearing Loss holds a prestigious raffle. This results in thousands being raised for the charity. This year, we’ve been absolutely overwhelmed by the response from companies helping with the raffle. We’re absolutely delighted so many organisations are taking notice of our music hearing protection campaign, which encourages people to listen to loud music safely by wearing earplugs when going to live gigs or clubs.

The prizes are:

Naim UnitiQute All-in-one player (worth £1,450)
PSP Total Bundle Pack (worth £900)
Sonnox Essential Native Plugin Bundle (worth £600)
TWO tickets to England v West Indies Test Match (priceless!)
Monitor Audio iDeck (worth £300)
Benefit Cosmetics Gift Box (worth £200)
Proguard Custom Made Musician Earplugs (worth £150)
Tinnitus Relaxer (worth £60)

Action on Hearing Loss run a music hearing protection campaign encouraging all musicians and music lovers to listen to loud music safely. If you regularly go to live gigs and clubs, invest in a good set of earplugs to protect yourself from damaging your hearing forever or developing tinnitus.

We also recommend that people who listen to mp3 players for long periods should take regular breaks, use noise-cancelling earphones and play it at a safe volume.

Anne Diamond speaks out about her hearing loss

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:55:05 Z

TV presenter Anne Diamond is still making the headlines. She tells Action on Hearing Loss why she’s speaking out now about her hearing loss.

Having hosted countless phone-in shows over more than three decades as a broadcaster, Anne Diamond is not easily shocked. But when she visited an audiologist last year to have her hearing tested, you could have knocked the renowned journalist and campaigner down with a feather.

“I was absolutely astonished when he told me my hearing was still within the normal range,” she says. “I have noticed a marked deterioration over the past four or five years, but apparently it’s not bad enough for me to need hearing aids.

“It made me realise just how much people suffer in this country with hearing loss. Because if I’m fine then I dread to think what life must be like for people who genuinely are classified as deaf.”

There is no doubt in her mind, however, that she did the right thing in having her hearing tested. For along with millions of others in this country, Anne is in the early stages of hearing loss, having already lost certain frequencies to the extent that it has a significant impact on her life. ‘Talkback’ devices – through which directors communicate with hosts – turned up too loudly have taken their toll.

Inspiring others

And, having faced the problem head on, she is determined to encourage and inspire others in her situation by speaking out.

“In the end I went to get checked out because my children were fed up of having to repeat themselves,” she says.

“I noticed that I had the TV turned up a touch louder than even my children would want. A conversation on the phone is always stressful for me.

“Mobiles in particular are really difficult because I don’t seem to be able to hear the things that other people can.

“It’s really noticeable when I’m a panellist on The Wright Stuff (on Channel 5) and people phone in to the show. Everyone else can hear the callers perfectly, but at times I really struggle.

“This isn’t a case of me being over sensitive – it’s a fact. The sound engineers say my earpiece is turned up far louder than anybody else’s. It reached the point earlier this month where I asked the producer to repeat what the caller was saying if I looked quizzical – so she did it and that worked fine.”

All of which will come as a surprise to viewers, given the trademark calm with which Anne continues to work.

The secret, according to Anne, is honesty: not attempting to conceal the issue and picking up advice about how to deal with it.

“The audiologist gave me some really good tips, even really obvious things like cupping your ears. It’s so incredibly effective it’s almost enough to make you go out and buy an ear trumpet.

“White noise is another thing to look out for. I was speaking at a big banqueting lunch the other day and I found the speech so much easier than the meal itself – because there was so much background chatter in this big hall I couldn’t make out what anyone was saying.

“It’s very stressful, so I can understand why people with hearing loss avoid these occasions altogether. That can be very isolating.

“It’s a bit of a family joke, but nowadays when we go out to a restaurant I deliberately pick a table with my back to the corner so I’ve got two reflective walls behind me.

“Even speaking about this makes me feel old, but that’s the reality and I’m not going to hide it.”

If this seems somewhat flippant, in truth she is anything but. Yet, with four boisterous children to keep her active, Anne is determined to avoid being held back by hearing loss. That’s why she is so supportive of the Action on Hearing Loss campaign to encourage more people to have their hearing tested."

Hearing matters

“I saw in your Hearing Matters report that the 10 million people in this country who have hearing loss will rise to nearly 15 million in the next 20 years unless we do something about it,” she says.

“That is a shocking statistic. It’s so easy to have your hearing tested – you can do it over the phone – and it’s so important to have early intervention.”

Anne admits to being equally appalled by the average of 10 years from when people first notice hearing loss to when they take action.

“We live in a very ageist society so I do understand,” she says. “But what’s the alternative? Suffering in an increasing level of silence? That’s crazy.

“We don’t write people off because they wear glasses, so why should hearing loss be any different?

“Perhaps people are scared because they don’t understand how far technology has come. Before I went to see the audiologist I did a search on Google and I was amazed by the quality of hearing aids out there.

“I’m such a gadget fanatic I was almost disappointed when he told me I didn’t need a hearing aid.”

“Having said that, I know the day may come when I need hearing aids, and now I know it’s nothing to be frightened of.

“It’s great that the onset of deafness is no longer something to fear. I just hope that in time we can get rid of the stigma attached to hearing loss once and for all.”

Watch a video of Anne explaining why she supports our campaign.

How to protect your hearing

Exposure to loud noise can gradually cause hearing loss or tinnitus. If, like Anne, you regularly use ‘talkback’ devices or, for example, wear a headset in a call centre, make sure you have a good-quality earpiece or headset. If the sound quality is good you shouldn’t have to increase the volume of the speaker through the headset. It is also important to give your ears regular breaks.

If you are worried about your hearing go to your GP. Taking action early can make it much easier to manage if you do find you are losing your hearing. Take our Hearing Check today.

Become a member

Join us and become a valued member of Action on Hearing Loss today. As a member, you will receive our award-winning magazine every two months, featuring in-depth interviews with celebrities such as Anne, as well as our expert reviews of new products for people with hearing loss, news of our campaigns, and much more.

Action on Hearing Loss champions BSL users right to access interpreters in hospitals

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:50:06 Z

This week, the health think tank, 2020 Health, revealed that, according to their Freedom of Information requests, the NHS in England spends £59,000 a day – £23million in the last year – on translating documents and providing interpreters.

2020 Health is urging NHS Trusts to stem the flow of translation costs and the TaxPayers’ Alliance said taxpayers would expect their money to go towards treatment for sick people, not on language services.

Acting Chief Executive of Action on Hearing Loss, Paul Breckell, responded: "Action on Hearing Loss believes that it is essential that the 50,000 deaf people who communicate by British Sign Language (BSL) have access to high standard BSL / English interpretation services in healthcare settings.

"Under the Equality Act 2010, health services must make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to be accessible to people with disabilities but, unfortunately, our research shows that 70% of BSL users admitted to accident and emergency departments were not provided with a BSL / English interpreter.

"People who are deaf have the right to the same level of service as other patients and, to avoid misunderstandings and frustration in what can often be very emotional circumstances, it is vital that hospitals pay for interpreters that fully meet their individual needs."

For free, confidential and impartial information for deaf and hard of hearing people, their families, friends, and professionals, contact the Action on Hearing Loss information line on 0808 808 0123 (freephone) or textphone 0808 808 9000 (freephone), or email informationline@hearingloss.org.uk.

Action on Hearing Loss calls on government to rethink Welfare Reform proposals reducing support for people with hearing loss

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:54:48 Z

Action on Hearing Loss is calling on the UK Government to rethink their proposed reforms to Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), which will result in fewer people with hearing loss receiving essential support to live a full and active life.

The UK charity taking action on hearing loss estimates 40,000 people who are deaf or hard of hearing receive DLA to meet the extra costs they face in everyday life, such as paying for vital communication support. Action on Hearing Loss is concerned that replacing DLA with Personal Independence Payment (PIP) will mean people will face the unnecessary bureaucracy of proving their deafness every 12 months, and tougher criteria to qualify for support.

Additionally, the decision to time-limit the receipt of contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance to just one year will make it more difficult for people with hearing loss to qualify for support. The proposals don't take into account the fact that deaf or hard of hearing people are significantly less likely to be working and spend a longer time out of work. Claimants with hearing loss no longer qualifying for ESA then face missing out on support from the new Work Programme, because it makes little or no economic sense for the scheme to help them into work.

Chief Executive of Action on Hearing Loss, Jackie Ballard, says: "We're urging the Government to recognise that PIP claimants with hearing loss do not recover their hearing therefore reassessment is costly and unnecessary. We're also highlighting the unfairness of the ESA proposals, which entitle successful claimants to only 12 months of support – even if they have paid National Insurance contributions their entire working life!

"Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) has much tougher criteria – not designed for people facing significant barriers to employment – so many people with hearing loss trying to move on to this support after 12 months won't qualify and experience a substantial reduction in their quality of life.

"The Government should change their Welfare Reform proposals to ensure they fully take into account the everyday needs of people who are deaf or hard of hearing, and provide essential support enabling claimants with hearing loss to access training or employment opportunities."

Further information and contacting us

If you would like any further information on this news story, please contact our Information Line on informationline@hearingloss.org.uk

Action on Hearing Loss welcomes the government's drive to improve quality of hearing aid services

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:30:56 Z

Action on Hearing Loss – formerly RNID – welcomes the Secretary of State for Health’s announcement today (Wednesday 7 December 2011) that almost half of Primary Care Trust (PCT) clusters in England have selected adult hearing aid services for implementing Any Qualified Provider (AQP).

A shocking two out of three people in the UK who could benefit from the provision of hearing aids have not yet got them. The charity believes that AQP will drive innovation and improve the quality and accessibility of services for people who need to address their hearing loss.

Action on Hearing Loss was involved in the development of the new AQP implementation pack for adult hearing aid services, including the service specification.

Chief Executive of Action on Hearing Loss, Jackie Ballard, says: “We welcome the decisions by many Primary Care Trust (PCT) clusters across England to provide adult hearing aid services through Any Qualified Provider (AQP). There are four million people in the UK with unaddressed hearing loss and these PCT's have clearly recognised that hearing loss is a major public health issue which should be given a greater profile in their communities.

“Our support for AQP is on the basis that the quality of hearing services improves and high clinical standards are guaranteed. We believe that AQP will drive innovation and create hearing services which are more accessible and better suited to individual needs. The test of AQP’s success for people with hearing loss will ultimately be how many more people are reached and how it delivers against key patient-centred outcomes.”

Contact for general media enquiries:

Alan Dalziel, Senior PR Officer at Action on Hearing Loss, telephone: 020 7296 8388 / 07944 038635 or email: alan.dalziel@hearingloss.org.uk

Notes for editors:

The new interactive map of AQP services shows that almost half of Primary Care Trust (PCT) clusters have selected adult hearing services for implementing AQP.
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.
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.

Last chance to win five thousand pounds in our Centenary Raffle!

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:00:56 Z

This is your last chance to join our celebrations and enter our Centenary Raffle. It costs just £1 to enter – and you could scoop the top prize of £5,000 cash.

What a way to celebrate our 100th birthday! The raffle closes on 14 December 2011.

Enter the draw or get in contact

So if you haven’t already entered, please act now by calling our Raffle Hotline on 01524 752 548 today. You never know, in a few short weeks you could be £5,000 richer!

Diplomat loses legal battle

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:34:12 +0100

Deaf diplomat Jane Cordell lost her employment tribunal against the Foreign Office after a long struggle. Alice Lagnado reports.

Jane Cordell, 44, was offered an exciting new post in 2010 as Deputy Head of Mission (deputy ambassador) in Kazakhstan. But the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said that the cost of supplying her with lipspeakers – £300,000 per year by their estimation – was too high. Cordell’s own estimate, not recognised by the FCO, is £176,000 per year.

As a diplomat, Cordell needs to work in embassies overseas to develop a successful career. It is now unclear how she will fulfil her talent and looks unlikely that she will be able to pursue her ambition of becoming an ambassador. The FCO says that Cordell can pursue other postings that would not incur such high costs. But these could not, seemingly, include senior diplomatic posts, which require frequent meetings with a variety of people and therefore constant lipspeaking support. Currently Cordell is carrying out a largely non-managerial desk job in London.

Cordell’s lipspeaking team was funded during her previous posting to Warsaw as First Secretary (Political/Military) where, ironically, she worked hard to champion disability rights and the UK’s policies and laws on disability (see box below). But in 2009, the FCO introduced a new policy meaning that disability-related costs of over £10,000 per year would be tested to see if they gave a ‘wider corporate benefit’ to the organisation. Under the new system, Cordell’s costs were found by the FCO to be unreasonable.

Yet the FCO funds private boarding schools for the children of diplomats which cost up to £25,000 per child per year, plus the costs of flying the child to its parents’ embassy abroad three times a year. So for a family with four children, these costs would total well over £100,000 a year.

Charles Crawford, a former UK ambassador who supported Cordell in preparing for her tribunal, says: "A very disappointing result from Jane Cordell’s point of view. The winning FCO argument appears to be that for disability law employment purposes all disabilities are equal – but some are more equal (i.e. much more affordable for employers) than others."

"The outcome seems to mean that the FCO needs to change its recruitment literature to say: 'Disabled people are welcome to apply to become diplomats, but those with disabilities such as deafness requiring unduly expensive support are unlikely to win overseas postings,' "says Crawford.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission, which gave legal backing to Cordell’s case and partly funded it, is disappointed in the outcome. "It has left her career in a state of limbo as she has no clarity around what level of adjustments the FCO will fund – a decision which directly influences whether she can be posted abroad in the future," a spokesperson says.
The Commission’s recent report, How Fair is Britain, showed that disabled people face barriers in the workplace that others do not. This means that only 50% of disabled people are employed, compared with 79% of non-disabled adults. "It is important that reasonable adjustments are provided to allow disabled people to participate fully in the workforce and allow talented people like Jane to realise their full potential," says the spokesperson.

However, Cordell, who is currently looking at her possible career options for the future, does not want to discourage others from going to tribunal. "If you know why you are going into it, it is worth doing," she says. "I’m proud I took this issue to tribunal and had the strength and resilience to do this, and to start a debate about the issue of reasonableness. It’s an extreme example, but sometimes extreme examples can be the best test of policy," she says.

Liz Sayce, chief executive of disability lobbying group Radar, says: "The decision that it is 'unaffordable' to enable a deaf diplomat to pursue her career – despite being the best candidate for the job – gives the message to disabled people that actually, the highest level jobs will be debarred. That some disabled people are just too expensive to employ and will never achieve equality."

The employment gap between disabled and non-disabled people is 29% (50% disabled people; 79% non-disabled people), according to Radar. There is also a 'seniority' gap. Radar’s research found non-disabled people are twice as likely as disabled people to be a board level director, three times as likely to be a director or head of department, and three times as likely to earn £80,000 or above.

"Jane Cordell is a recognised role model for disabled people, coaching and mentoring younger colleagues and offering support and inspiration. Holding back a role model is always unwise. She could have been an incredible international role model and ambassador for Britain," Sayce says.

"The decision doesn’t even make sense financially … Making the adjustments needed in this case would not open the floodgates. But there really is a cost to discouraging our most powerful disabled role models from progressing," she says.
Flying high

Jane Cordell joined the FCO in her thirties after working as a musician in Finland, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher and manager in Poland and editor for Cambridge University Press and the University of London.

She rose from a research job to First Secretary (Political/Military) in Warsaw, Poland. In this job, she led a team of nine staff which covered external and internal political issues, justice and home affairs and press relations. She led the embassy’s work on all foreign and security policy issues, including relations between Poland, Russia and eastern neighbours, ballistic missile defence, Poland’s military contribution in Afghanistan, and international development policy. Cordell also worked hard both to show her Polish counterparts that a deaf person could work effectively as a diplomat, and to assist Poles in developing their own disability laws, as well as learning fluent Polish.

She worked closely with the Polish government, and worked with Polish NGOs to develop a stronger voice for the disabled community in Poland. Following the work of Jane and her colleagues at the UK Embassy, Polish NGOs formed a coalition to lobby the government better. The coalition also produced a draft law on disability equality based on the UK’s Disability Discrimination Act. Before she left Cordell took part in a training course for the new coalition on how to achieve their objectives and promote their work. This was facilitated by Liz Sayce, chief executive of the UK’s disability lobbying group Radar, and Phil Friend, its chair.

Cordell also helped to organise study visits for Polish MPs to meet senior UK disability representatives in Parliament, the Department for Work and Pensions and elsewhere, with the last visit taking place in spring 2010. This last trip included a trip to Wembley to discuss access to Euro2012, the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship to be held in Poland and Ukraine in June-July 2012. "I am proud that this work has continued after my departure," says Cordell.

What is a lipspeaker?

Lipspeakers are professionally trained to work with people who prefer to communicate through lipreading and speech. They repeat what is being said without using their voice but very clearly so that you can lipread them easily. They will help your understanding by using facial expression, natural gesture and, if requested, some fingerspelling. In certain situations, such as a one-to-one consultation with your doctor, you can ask the lipspeaker to use clear communication and voice if you would find that more helpful. You can book lipspeakers or find out more about them through our Communications Services.

For more information, or call our Information Line on 0808 808 0123 (tel) or 0808 808 9000 (textphone).

You can read our earlier interview with Jane Cordell here.

Choose Action on Hearing Loss as Majestic Wine Charity of the Year!

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:11:19 +0100

We’ve successfully reached the shortlist for Majestic Wine's Charity of the Year 2012.

Now we need your help!

Help us to be selected to work in partnership with Majestic Wine. In total seven charities have been shortlisted for the Majestic Wine staff vote and we need as many votes as possible! If you work for Majestic or know someone who does, please consider a vote for Action on Hearing Loss as Charity of the Year.

Voting is open from 20 to 26 October. By voting for Action on Hearing Loss, you will help us to address the stigma and isolation that affects 1 in 6 people in the UK.

The value of your vote

With over 160 stores, Majestic Wine has a great presence across the UK. A partnership with Majestic Wine would help us reach the 4 million people in the UK with unaddressed hearing loss. It will also raise vital funds to help support people who are deaf or have a hearing loss.

Extra funds raised through this potential partnership will help support our Hear to Help service. This service helps to transform the lives of people who are socially isolated due to their hearing loss. The service also provides information about hearing health and protection through our work in local communities.

Further information

For further information about working in partnership with Action on Hearing Loss or our Hear to Help service, please contact:

Derek Cockfield

Senior Corporate Partnerships Manager
Action on Hearing Loss

Telephone 020 7296 8312
Fax 020 7296 8129

derek.cockfield@hearingloss.org.uk

I'll make a joke of it

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 14:15:51 +0100

Larry Lamb, the renowned actor, talks about losing the hearing in his right ear after contracting malaria. By Alice Lagnado

“I cannot understand for the life of me why anybody would be shy or embarrassed about anything so basic as your hearing going,” says Larry Lamb in his deep, resonant voice. “It just escapes me completely. There’s nothing to be shy about.”

Lamb, famous for his roles in EastEnders and Gavin & Stacey, sees his hearing loss in very down-to-earth colours. Lamb, 63, became deaf in one ear when he contracted malaria after a visit to Senegal with a charity.

He took his malaria pills on the trip, but, not realising he needed to finish the course, stopped when he returned to the UK. He was ill for six long weeks.

“I was absolutely wretched. It was horrible,” he says. “It was like the worst hangover I’ve ever had.”

One night it got too much and his partner, actor Clare Burt, called for an ambulance. Dehydrated, Lamb was put on a drip. By 5am he felt a bit better, but it took a while for the doctors to work out he had malaria.

Shock

Then he had another shock. “I suddenly realised I’d gone very deaf on the right side,” he says. He had developed an ear infection which had damaged his cochlea.

Steroids did not clear it up, so he got some hearing aids – specifically CROS aids, which are for people with hearing in one ear only.

CROS aids feed sound from the side with no hearing to the good ear. From Specsavers, they worked well from the start, to the relief of Lamb, his partner and their young daughters, Eloise and Eva.

“They’ve been very good about [my hearing loss], but [were] relieved when I did actually get some hearing aids.”

He has no trouble hearing them now: “They’re very high in the volume stakes, all three of ‘em. Foghorns!” he says.

Role model

Lamb is a role model for people who hesitate to get hearing aids, because he has no inhibitions about them, or about the ageing process. It helps that he is in great physical shape, and doesn’t drink.

Has that always been the case? “Oh God no, I gave it up a couple of years ago, it was all getting a bit too much. Can’t deal with hangovers, especially when they go on for five days, and get longer and more painful.”

His son, the DJ George Lamb, dresses him – “he’ll pick things out in the shop whereas I can’t be bothered”.

Today, he’s wearing brown brogues that used to be George’s, and a pared-down outfit of grey lambswool sweater and matching cords. George even chose his father’s glasses – tortoiseshell and slightly severe.

Lamb’s hearing loss has not affected his work, though, because acting is a controlled environment with prepared texts; it’s noisy restaurants that are hard.

“Blokes are vain”

He thinks men are more concerned than women about getting hearing aids: “Blokes are vain – a bit unrealistic about that sort of thing. They feel it’s a sign that they’re getting older.”

Lamb doesn’t share that vanity. “I don’t care if people know that I’m deaf, I mean, I will make a joke of it, you know, ‘you’ve got an old, deaf man to accommodate,’” he says.

His mood in our interview is not forgiving – showing a hint of the darkness he drew upon to play characters like Archie Mitchell in EastEnders.

Archie was such a powerful character that he seemed present in the soap long after he was killed off. In particular, he left his stamp on the tragic figure of older daughter Ronnie (Samantha Womack), who was raped by her father as a teenager.

Ronnie seemed to be imprisoned by her father even after his death, just as Lamb took a long time to get rid of the influence of his father.

He remembers the moment when he was stopped (by ex-wife Linda Martin) from behaving like his father towards his son George.

“The most important moment of my life”

“It was the most important moment of my life, when she stopped me dominating that boy,” he says. “Something registered very profoundly and made me realise that she was absolutely right and this was something I needed to act on,” he says.

It was the moment when his own father stopped dominating him. And that was a big deal, because it meant that Lamb then started to develop a healthy, happy relationship with his son, which continues today.

What a contrast Archie Mitchell is with the kind Michael Shipman character in Gavin & Stacey. “It’s like the two sides of me, I suppose, the bad and the good,” he says.

Does he get the blues? “Oh God yeah, yeah, I can get deeply, deeply, darkly depressed. Oh yeah, but you just learn to live with it, you know, I’m an actor, a lot of actors are depressives, you’re as high as a kite and you’re down the bottom of a mineshaft all in the course of a day, that’s the way it is.”

How does he manage it? “You just know that sooner or later the light will appear at the end of the tunnel,” he says.

But having that side to him also helps his acting. “You’ve gotta have that rawness to you to be able to do the job.”

Larry is spearheading a campaign to launch the partnership between Specsavers and Action on Hearing Loss, who together have pledged to test the hearing of one million people over the coming year.

Malaria and hearing loss

by Olivia DeAbreu

Malaria is a life-threatening parasitic disease spread by the bites of infected mosquitoes. There is evidence that suggests that the malaria parasite called ‘falciparum’ is a potential cause of hearing loss.

Antimalarial drugs should be taken before, during and after a visit to an area where malaria is common.

Make sure that you understand how and when to take your tablets. It is vital that you finish the course of tablets when you get home to make sure that you are properly protected, because not doing so could put you at risk of developing a hearing loss.

If you are about to travel to an area where malaria is common, please do consult your GP.

Making a difference with our Hear to Meet projects

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 17:17:30 +0100

In the lead up to Make a Difference Day, Action on Hearing Loss is asking everyone to get involved and host a M.A.D.D Hatter’s Tea Party in their area to bring people together who may be feeling lonely or isolated. Tackling loneliness and isolation is at the core of our work at Action on Hearing Loss and so in the lead up Make a Difference Day 2011, we're calling for people to volunteer or set up their own Hear to Meet session.

Hear to Meet is a pilot project which gives people with hearing loss in the Peterborough area the opportunity to meet up over a cup of tea or coffee and exchange experiences and information. The Hear to Meet clubs are run by a team of volunteers and we have now established clubs in Peterborough town, Whittlesey, Werrington and New England. The Hear to Meet clubs are free to attend and it is sometimes possible to arrange transport for people who need it.

We are always looking to set up more clubs in other areas in and around Peterborough, so when you are planning your M.A.D.D Hatter’s Tea Party in Peterborough, why not carry that on beyond Make a Difference Day and find out how to develop it into another Hear to Meet project?!

Get your tea cups at the ready and introduce people with a hearing loss to your local Hear to Meet project in the Peterborough area and tackle loneliness and isolation in your community. We are always looking for volunteers to help run these projects, so if you want to volunteer or if you’d like to pop along to one of the clubs then we’re Hear to Meet you!

Come along to our Hear to Meet clubs at the following four locations:

Senior Stop, WRVS, 2 Cattle Market, Peterborough, PE1 1TW - Every Monday (except Bank Holidays) from 11.30am-12.30pm
Ivy Leaf Club, 1 Gracious Street, Whittlesey, Peterborough, PE7 1AP - 2nd Tuesday of every month, 10am-11.30am
Sutton Court, Skaters Way, Werrington, PE4 6NB - 1st Friday of every month from 2.30pm-4pm
Shakespeare Centre, Shakespeare Avenue, New England, Peterborough, PE1 3JX - 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month, 11am-12.30pm (Starting October 2011)

We are currently looking for more volunteers to establish Hear to Meet clubs. If you live in the Peterborough area and you are interested in volunteering with us, please get in touch.

For more information, please contact:

Sue Warner
Hear to Meet Project Coordinator,
Action on Hearing Loss,
1 Haddonbrook Business Centre,
Orton Southgate,
Peterborough
PE2 6YX

Tel/ textphone: 01733 363903
Fax: 01733 232785

Email: sue.warner@hearingloss.org.uk

Grant boosts charity's funding of pioneering age-related hearing loss study

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 14:09:11 +0100

A pioneering research project funded by Action on Hearing Loss – formerly RNID – at the University of Sheffield has received a substantial funding boost from the Masonic Samaritan Fund (external link, opens in new window).

The £25,429 donation from the Masonic Samaritan Fund will be funding research led by Dr Walter Marcotti at the university’s Department of Biomedical Science which is undertaking work to increase understanding of progressive age-related hearing loss.

Research Programme Manager at Action on Hearing Loss, Dr Rachel Baker, says: “Hearing loss affects more than 10 million people in the UK – including 55% of people over 60 – and this figure will increase to 14.5 million by 2031. We’re grateful to the Masonic Samaritan Fund for their generous grant, which we’re allocating to Dr Marcotti’s research whose study is increasing our understanding of progressive hearing loss and could lay the foundations for developing gene therapy treatments in the future.”

John McCrohan, Grants Director of the Masonic Samaritan Fund, says: “The research that Dr Marcotti and his team are undertaking could prove vital in developing a better understanding of progressive hearing loss. The Masonic Samaritan Fund is encouraged by the successes that Dr Marcotti has already achieved in this area and the commitment shown by Action on Hearing Loss to date. We hope that our grant can help to lay the foundations for future genetic therapies that will stop or cure this form of hearing loss.”

Dr Walter Marcotti says: “Progressive hearing loss affects a large proportion of the human population, including new born and young children. Despite the relevance of this problem, very little is currently known regarding the genetic basis of progressive hearing loss. Our research has provided new and exciting results that further our understanding of auditory development, as well as possible molecular targets for the development of future therapies.”

RNID has become Action on Hearing Loss because the new name better represents the full scope of the charity’s life-changing work for people with all forms of hearing loss, as well as reaching out to those at risk of losing their hearing.

For information about how Action on Hearing Loss is funding biomedical research to develop treatments to improve the everyday lives of people with hearing loss, visit www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/biomedicalresearch

- ENDS -

Contact for general media enquiries:

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

Notes to editors:

High resolution jpeg images of the Masonic Samaritan Fund with Dr Walter Marcotti and Dr Rachel Baker at the University of Sheffield are available.
Action on Hearing Loss is the charity working for a world where hearing loss doesn't limit or label people, where tinnitus is silenced – and where people value and look after their hearing.
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.
With nearly 24,000 students from 131 countries, the University of Sheffield is one of the UK’s leading and largest universities. A member of the Russell Group, it has a reputation for world-class teaching and research excellence across a wide range of disciplines. The University has won four Queen’s Anniversary Prizes (1998, 2000, 2002, 2007). These prestigious awards recognise outstanding contributions by universities and colleges to the United Kingdom’s intellectual, economic, cultural and social life. Sheffield also boasts five Nobel Prize winners among former staff and students and many of its alumni have gone on to hold positions of great responsibility and influence around the world. The University’s research partners and clients include Boeing, Rolls Royce, Unilever, Boots, AstraZeneca, GSK, ICI, Slazenger, and many more household names, as well as UK and overseas government agencies and charitable foundations. The University has well-established partnerships with a number of universities and major corporations, both in the UK and abroad. Its partnership with Leeds and York Universities in the White Rose Consortium has a combined research power greater than that of either Oxford or Cambridge. For further information, please visit www.sheffield.ac.uk.

Charity calls on government to remove major barriers stopping people taking action on hearing loss

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:16:08 +0100

UK charity Action on Hearing Loss – formerly RNID – called on government yesterday (Tuesday 14 June 2011) to remove the 'major barriers' within the health system that stand in the way of people taking action on their hearing loss, and to prioritise hearing loss in line with other major health issues.

In a report entitled 'Hearing Matters', launched yesterday, Action on Hearing Loss presented the scale and impact of hearing loss in the UK, and set out its vision, part of which is a demand for GPs to recognise the crucial importance of diagnosing hearing loss at an early stage – and to dramatically increase their audiology referral rates for patients reporting hearing difficulties.

Action on Hearing Loss chief executive, Jackie Ballard said: “Our research shows that 76% of people agree that having a hearing loss can have a massive effect on someone’s life. Other research reveals that 45% of people who needed to be referred to an audiologist by their GP were turned away the first time. This must change.

“Hearing loss is a major public health issue, affecting now more than 10 million people in the UK – one in six of the population. As our population ages, this number will grow and, by 2031, this figure will reach 14.5 million. We’re calling on government to commit to a national strategy for dealing with hearing loss, and to prioritise it in line with other major health issues, such as dementia.”

Hearing Matters – supported by their new partners, Specsavers – was officially launched by Action on Hearing Loss at a reception at the Houses of Parliament, where Health Minister, Paul Burstow, and other MPs were urged to acknowledge that current approaches to hearing loss and audiology do not work for an ageing population.

Health Minister, Paul Burstow, said: “The Government wants health outcomes in this country to be amongst the best in the world. For us to achieve this ambition for people with hearing loss, we need to give them more choice and access to treatment and support.

“For a hundred years, the RNID has done so much for people who are deaf and hard of hearing. With its renewed focus on action on hearing loss, reflected in its change of name, I am sure this valued organisation will continue to achieve great things in the years to come. I look forward to seeing what work we can do together to deliver the best that we can for the millions of people living with hearing loss.”

Action on Hearing Loss is currently developing alternative models for delivering hearing services which will be presented to government officials later this year. The charity wants to ensure hearing services are ‘de-medicalised’ and people-centred so that patients have greater choice on how they address their hearing loss and have more convenient access to services within their local communities.

Please check out Hearing Matters section to read more, including stories from the report.

- ENDS -

Contact for general media enquiries:

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

Notes to editors:

Highlights of the Hearing Matters report include:
a. By 2030, the World Health Organisation would rank hearing loss in the top 10 disease burdens in high- and middle-income countries.
b. Significant underinvestment in hearing research and a lack of progress in translating scientific discoveries into commercial treatments are holding us back. In 2010, The UK spent £1.34 on research into hearing loss for every person affected. This compares to £14.21 for sight loss, £21.31 for diabetes, and £49.71 for cardiovascular research.
c. It takes, on average, 10 years for people from recognising a hearing loss to taking action. It’s important that people take action quickly because they can benefit from hearing aids sooner and be less likely to experience unnecessary isolation, which can lead to depression. The Action on Hearing Loss hearing check www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/check is an easy way for people to take the first steps to addressing their hearing loss.
d. There are currently four million people in the UK who would benefit from wearing a hearing aid, but have yet to do anything about it. Action on Hearing Loss wants to remove the barriers to treatment, and the stigma of hearing loss, to enable these people to take action and live their lives to the full.
e. A further four million young people in the UK are at risk of avoidable hearing damage from amplified music, but the government and educators are failing to recognise the magnitude of the issue.
f. Referral of adults with hearing loss to sensory, social care and other rehabilitation services is ad hoc and sometimes completely lacking. Key services and support such as lipreading classes are also at risk of decline.
Action on Hearing Loss is the charity working for a world where hearing loss doesn't limit or label people, where tinnitus is silenced – and where people value and look after their hearing.
The Hearing Matters report is supported by Action on Hearing Loss’s new partners, Specsavers.
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.

Action on Hearing Loss news

Mark Deaf Awareness Week by following our top communication tips

During Deaf Awareness Week (6 - 12 May 2013), we're urging people across the UK to follow some top communication tips

Top tips

ZIP IT!

Contact for general media enquiries:

Notes for editors:

Feeling good

Why do deaf people sometimes experience more mental health issues than hearing people? Alice Lagnado reports.

Double bind

Good news

Getting help

Case study: A way out

Want to read more?

Do you want to be a Torchbearer for the London 2012 Paralympic Games?

Final call for nominations - closing date 22 November

Open to all

Apply now

Contact us

Nominee Approval Process

Charity calls on employers to end 'uncaring culture'

Contact for general media enquiries:

Notes for editors:

Femme fatale

Rachel Shenton, who plays Mitzeee in the television series Hollyoaks, adores playing a character so different from her. By Alice Lagnado.

Down-to-earth

Gumption

Raising awareness

A sense of community

Working 9 to 5?

What do I do if I lose my hearing suddenly?

Further information

Action on Hearing Loss Volunteer Awards 2012 nominations now open!

Feel inspired?

Lobbying to change social care

Register to attend

End The Care Crisis lobby

Find out more

End the care crisis - take action

Take action now

Life in a war zone

John Simpson, BBC World Affairs Editor, tells Chris White how a career on the frontline has affected his hearing.

Loss of hearing

Noise damage

Making adjustments

Become a member

Join the conversation

Banking on better services

HSBC spent an afternoon at our offices to gather your views on banks. Johanna Taylor reports on their visit.

A compelling insight

Read more articles

Join the conversation

Action on Hearing Loss President Lord Ashley passes away at the age of 89

He didn't let his own deafness limit or label him

Role model

Deaf Awareness Week Events

Key events to look out for

Talks to healthcare professionals

Action squads

Information stands

Collections

Go to the movies

Who can attend?

It’s not all about us

'Entrepreneurial' leader sought as our new Chief Exec

Help us celebrate the life of Lord Jack Ashley

Ensure television and technology is more accessible

If subtitles are important to your enjoyment of television – we need your help!

Urgent action needed - contact your MP today!

Tell us about your action!

Keeping you informed

Eminent supporters honoured in Queens birthday honours list 2012

Knighthood and OBE awarded

RT Hon Sir Malcolm Bruce MP

Adrian Clark OBE

Liz Jones reveals how she is finally tackling her hearing loss

I don’t know when I became deaf. There wasn’t a moment of realisation. No one spotted there was anything wrong: not parents or teachers. They thought I was shy. I thought I was stupid.

'This is a disaster'

'I couldn’t follow conversations'

'Being deaf is isolating'