Hearing Aid donation all the way back to 2010

Hearing Aid donation whizzing us all the way back to 2010

Hearing Aid donation whizzing us all the way back to 2010!

Hearing Aid donation all the way back to 2010! This morning, Bonfire Night 2023, we received a fantastic ‘vintage’ donation.  We always feel so grateful to everyone who finds us and takes the time to parcel up and donate old hearing aids to Hearing Aid Recycling.  Often we get an amazing selection from one person.  Showing us their whole ‘lifetime’ of hearing journey.  From possibly the first NHS analogue hearing aids distributed up to 30 years ago, through to current NHS models.  Often including independently dispensed ones that they have invested in, in later life.  We will, always, do our very best to make sure they go on to help others at home and abroad.

Hearing Aid donation all the way back to 2010

Today, as mentioned above, we received a pair of Siemens hearing aids.  For privacy reasons we have blocked out the name of the patient.  It was a donation of just one set of hearing aids so it wasn’t one of those donations that charted a whole hearing journey.  However, it came with the original letter from the dispenser.  So it very much charted the beginning of a hearing journey.  The aids may be 13 years old but the letter and its advice is still very much relevant to this day.  Here is a transcript of the letter:

Letter from S.C.Hearing Ltd

Following a full audiometric assessment on 17h May 2010, the patient has been shown to be suffering from an acute bilateral sensori-neural hearing loss.

The practical effects of such damage in the high frequency is predominantly a loss of clarity particularly with consonants and a missing of words or a lack of comprehension.

The volume (lower frequencies) is relatively unimpaired so that the patient will often hear a conversation but not hear enough of it to fully make sense.

Such hearing patterns are exaggerated in the presence of background noise and the additional concentration required by the patient often causes rapid fatigue and an eventual withdrawal from the conversation.

High frequency improvement through the use of two digital behind-the-ear hearing instruments should hugely improve the situation, although the ultimate success of such equipment will be dependent on the perseverance of the patient to adapt to the new level of hearing.”

In brief layman’s terms:

The lady has begun to lose clarity of speech in noisy environments due to age related hearing loss.  An inability to participate fully in conversation will lead to social withdrawal and as we now know put the patient at a much higher risk of developing dementia.  Most people lose a level of hearing gradually and so their brain adjusts over time to a ‘new reality’.  Concentrating through hearing loss is very tiring but so is wearing hearing aids. Getting re-accustomed to all the sharpness of sound in the everyday world which had been softened off and made cushioned by their reduced hearing.  The only way to get over this is to wear the hearing aids all the time. To allow the brain to readjust to hearing again. 

What’s the answer?

Founder Zoe often speaks to people who complain that they “just couldn’t get on with hearing aids”.  When asked those patients always  confirm that they only wear their aids occasionally.  “Popping them in for parties or when the family insist”.  Which will always end in failure as the aids will make the environment feel alien and hostile.  The only solution is to adapt and accept (for fear of sounding like we’re trying to give the Dalai Lama a run for his consciousness crown). To wear your hearing aids all day every day so that becomes the norm.  As we often talk about we’re so lucky in the UK to have our amazing NHS and all the amazing hearing aids they dispense each year. 

Can private technolgy help?

The NHS looked after Zoe from the age of 19 until her early 30’s.  The hearing aids she received transformed her life.  However, she was fortunate enough latterly to buy some of the private hearing aids.  Although brilliant the NHS aids noise filtering in loud, busy environments is not as good as some of the private technology. So another bit of advice might also be to buy the best technology that you can afford at the time.  The noise cancellation of the independent aids may make adopting wearing them an easier transition for some people.

S C Hearing Ltd – Weston-Super-Mare – Still going strong!!

Out of curiosity we looked up S C Hearing to see if they were still helping people with their hearing in the South West.  They are! In fact you can still find them , not only, on Meadow Street in Weston-Super-Mare but also at each of the following locations:

  N K Opticians Weston Super Mare

Edwards Midsomer Norton

N K Opticians Cheddar

Lunar Optical Bristol

Millicans Wells

They are one of the few independent retailers of hearing aids so you should be able to get impartial advice on the very best hearing aid solution for you.

Some of the brands they stock are:

Phonak

Audio Service

Signia

Pure Tone

If you’d like to book in for a hearing assessment with S.C.Hearing then you can find all the rest of their information here.

Hearing Aid donation all the way back to 2010!! So, where were you in 2010?

Co-Founder of Hearing Aid Recycling and writer of this blog post was, already deaf and in the thick of having her family in 2010.  Having had her 3 girls and poor old only boy Bertie in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2013 it’s reasonably safe to say nearly all of the early 2010’s but definitely 2010 itself is a bit of a blur.  How about for you?

My amazing children are a bit more camera shy these days. Here’s ‘only boy Bertie’ in 2010. He was wearing almost as much mud after rugby this evening but the hat has been replaced with a mullet, more 1980 than 2010?

Apparently, those of us that weren’t exhausted and frazzled were watching (for the first times!):

The Great British Bake Off

Sherlock

And Downton Abbey

Listening to:

Eminem (featuring Rhianna (without her Umbrella))

And

One Direction

Arghhhh!!

It feels tragically middle-aged to say (if the cap fits!?) it but, don’t they all look so young!!

We, of course, absolutely cannot sign off without saying a massive thank you to the lady’s family for donating her Siemens hearing aids.  THANK YOU!

If you would like to know more about how you can donate any old hearing aids or hearing aids batteries then please click the link here.  Please also don’t hesitate to get in touch with us by clicking here.