Old name, new purpose: why we’ve gone back to RNID

  1. Home
  2. Get involved
  3. Donate
  4. How your gift changes lives

How your gift changes lives

Thanks to you, we’re changing lives today.

Thanks to your incredible support, services across the UK are there to help deaf people, and those with hearing loss or tinnitus.

From people who have just been diagnosed, those who feel isolated and alone to people who’ve had hearing loss all their lives, your support is providing incredible services dedicated to helping people live a full and rewarding life.

Your support helps us be there for anyone who needs us – be that at a local drop-in, or via our contact centre or online.

Through your support, you’re helping people with hearing loss access life-changing help, information and support. Thank you.

How you’re helping

  • 52 research projects are currently being funded thanks to your generosity.
  • Your Information Line answered 26,000 calls, emails and webchats last year.

You are transforming the future for people with hearing loss

Research update

Thanks to your support, work led by Professor Frances Williams at Kings College London and Dr Sally Dawson working at the UCL Ear Institute has identified 44 genes linked to hearing loss.

This breakthrough research has shed light on the biological pathways involved in progressive hearing loss, which has also been identified as a risk factor for dementia.

Currently, little is known about the causes of this type of hearing loss, which is common in older people and can only be treated using hearing aids.

We believe that this work will identify new targets and therapies that could help prevent or roll back progressive hearing loss.

Through your incredible support, you are helping Professor Williams and Dr Dawson identify new targets to help treat hearing loss. Thank You.

“We hope that our findings will help drive forward research into much-needed new therapies for the millions of people worldwide affected by hearing loss as they age” – Dr Sally Dawson, UCL Ear Institute

There’s still so much to do

  • One in five adults in the UK are deaf, have hearing loss or tinnitus
  • Today there are nearly a million people in the UK who can hear very little, or nothing at all.
  • One in seven adults in the UK suffer with tinnitus.
  • Right now there are 4 million people living in the UK who need a hearing aid, but don’t have one.

How your gift changes lives

Through your generosity, you are helping make all this incredible work possible. Right now, 88p in every £1 we receive goes to help people confronting deafness, tinnitus and hearing loss. Thank you for your support.

£10 could pay for a person with tinnitus to take part in a study to identify biological markers for tinnitus that could help us to develop new, effective treatments.

£25 could buy cell culture media, allowing scientists to grow cells in experiments searching for new treatments for hearing loss 

£50 could pay for two hours of a Contact RNID Coordinator’s time on your Information Line, offering life-changing information to the people who need it 

£100 could purify 30 samples of DNA, as scientists search for genes linked to hearing loss that could be targets for future treatments.

Page last updated: 21 December 2023

Back to top