Kerry Daynes: We. are. so. excited…
to welcome our latest Supporting Partner: Kerry Daynes.
Thank you Kerry Daynes for your support!
When patience pays off!!
Good things (and Kerry Daynes) come to those who wait!
We are so grateful for Kerry’s support of Hearing Aid Recycling and the opportunity to get to know more about her and the amazing work that she does. Technology glitches led to 3 failed attempts (there’s not much more irritating than a computer that says no – is there?). However, as with most things in life, perseverance paid off. When it finally came off, Hearing Aid Recycling’s Zoe loved every minute of her virtual cup of tea and biscuit with fabulous and fascinating Kerry. Here’s some of (what we think are) the best bits.
Britpop Cool or posh – which wins for you?
Kerry grew up in Stockport. On the boundary between Greater Manchester and Cheshire. It made us smile to read in Female First Kerry saying that her Mother “thinks I should tell people that I come from Cheshire, because it sounds posher”. However, Manchester City FC loving badboys of Britpop (Noel and Liam Gallagher – Oasis) are heading back out on the road this Summer. With their eagerly awaited and much hyped 25 year anniversary (yep, we’re all that old!) tour. Cementing Manchester back in the centre of ‘cool’. We think there’s a strong argument for cool over posh. What do you think?
What makes you a great guest?
We’re Wonder(Wall)ing what makes you the perfect BBQ guest? We’re also trying (and failing) to find a clever play on words linking in ‘Firestarter‘. Answers on a postcard? We realise we are showing our age with all these mid-90’s references? Chatting about Oasis and Prodigy releases and answering inane questions on postcards rather than sending a text or scanning the code? We are, though, less meandering, more careering, off point. The point being the fabulous Kerry and her support for all things Hearing aid Recycling.
Interesting Kerry fact number 2:
Here’s interesting Kerry fact number 2: her self-proclaimed party trick is fire-eating and fire-breathing. Apparently learning how to spit an eight-foot burst of flame helped her overcome a fear of fire and ‘felt like an interesting workshop to take one Saturday’. With more of her brilliant dead-pan, Northern, self-deprecating humour; Kerry comments that “fire-breathing gives me a strange chemical headache and paraffin chronically repeats on me. But on the upside, it makes me the ideal Summer barbecue guest”.
More than just a (very) pretty face!
You’d have to be fairly daft not to realise that as a well known TV Forensic Criminal Psychologist and several times over published author that there’s quite a lot ‘going on’ with Kerry. Something we didn’t know was her focus on mindfulness (more on this later!). Part of this is encompassed away from the screen, within the role she plays at One Aesthetic Studio (firmly in posh Cheshire), Alderley Edge. Kerry runs her successful clinical practice from a pretty former terraced house there. Specialising in enabling clients to find solutions to a wide range of issues through Psychology and Emotional Detox. Interested? Click here to find out all about it.
Here comes Kerry Daynes fact 3: If your face fits?
Yes, we’re still on faces! Briefly, with another bit of a preamble. Kerry talks about how people are often surprised to learn what she does. That it has become clear over time that she doesn’t fit most people’s preconceptions of a stereotypical Forensic Criminal Psychologist. Apparently most of us think big, male and Scottish (akin to Robbie Coltrane in Cracker). However, incredibly pretty, softly-spoken and with, again, a humble humour, feminine Kerry couldn’t be much of a greater departure from this so called ‘norm’. It’s interesting to see the impact a TV programme can have as the actual ‘norm’ is much closer to Kerry than most of us think. Women make up 73% of the British Psychological Society (the professional body for practicing psychologists in the United Kingdom). Rising to a huge 80% in the forensic division.
What shape is your life?
We’re off on another tangent, we did warn you! Talking to Kerry was a wonderful hour, well spent. Her enthusiasm for life, her projects (more on these later as well) and the world around was infectious and intoxicating. Something else we came across recently, other than the human condition of pigeon holing people into (often misconstrued) stereotypes, was a great book ‘Life is in the Transitions’ by Bruce Feiler.
It’s all in the book – this one – if you fancy it!
This one:
Based on an extensive and exhaustive collection of conversations and life stories gathered as part of the book’s research. Like this article being based on our chat with Kerry; but on a much grander scale! One of the questions Bruce asked was: what shape do you feel represents your life? No spoiler alert, we’ll keep this deliberately sketchy to not sway your view should you read it. However, in loose terms it seems we fall into 3 categories (or a combination of them) when it comes to our life focus: Agency, Belonging or Cause (ABC). The shape we pick helps show us which category we place most importance on. We’d love to know which shape Kerry would pick. What’s yours – time to get your postcards out again?
Back to Hearing Aid Recycling’s Fab Supporting Partner Kerry Daynes!
Is it a book? Is it a TV Show?
No, we’re not trying to play a pretty bad game of virtual charades with you. We’re talking about just a few of Kerry’s professional achievements. Kerry has been gracing our screens for several years now in programmes such as:
Jack the Ripper – 5 Victims
Secrets of a Psychopath
Faking it: Tears of a Crime
The Victorian Murder Files
Not forgetting the books!
She’s also been very busy off-screen too. With an ever expanding list of books to her name. Such as:
Was it always going to be a career in criminology?
Tell us Kerry: What first attracted you to the life of a Forensic Criminal Psychologist?
‘Meeting’ Kerry reminded us of the late Caroline Aherne, another beautiful, creative, Manchester (we’re going for cool over posh?) lady with a keen intelligence and razor sharp wit. Hence our Mrs Merton influenced title. Kerry chose to follow a career in Forensic Psychology as she had “idealistic notions of contributing to a future with less victims in it”. Something that Kerry feels she has at least in part accomplished, commenting: “I once received a thank you card that said “without you I would have killed my ex-wife”! I still hold the same idealistic notions but have had to concede that, as a whole, the social and criminal justice system in the UK not only fails victims, but also creates new ones”.
It’s all in the mind!?
It mostly seems so. We couldn’t, obviously, talk about Kerry and express our thanks for her support of Hearing Aid Recycling without talking: Mind! Mind is incredibly important to Kerry. Not only has she made her career out of investigating the inner workings of the criminal one, she also appreciates the importance of working on our own minds. A subject she tackles in her usual inimitable style.
For the love of dogs!
We thought that Hearing Aid Recycling’s ‘Pindywhip’ was the coolest, cutest canine on the block (here he is heading off to sea!). However, we have to bow down with good grace to the winner in the cuteness stakes: Kerry’s Furpy.
Kerry credits her amazing dog Furpy (Mr Fur Potato) for helping her master the mysteries of mindfulness. Here she talks about how her dogs have helped her: “My chow-chows, Fozzchops and Humphrey, both have arthritis and our walks are more meanders, long examinations of every blade of grass and wildflower, punctuated by sits.
It forces me to slow down and pay attention to the scenery. It is the best therapy I have found for calming my wrangling thoughts and it beats staring at a raisin for forty-five minutes any day of the week (those who have been subjected to that mindfulness staple will understand!). We should prescribe less anti-anxiety medications and more dog walks on the NHS”.
Everyone needs strong sisterly support?
Again, we’re so grateful to Kerry for finding us, getting in touch, having her imagination captured by our vision and wanting to help in a Supporting Partner role. Kerry has her own very important Supporting Person in her life, her sister Tara. Kerry has long had problems with her ears. Suffering from Meniere’s Disease from her early 20’s. Before unfortunately a bad bout of flu (or possibly an early case of Covid 19) caused catastrophic damage to Kerry’s eardrums and hearing. Kerry’s sister Tara has been learning British Sign Language and trying to teach it to Kerry for the past 3 years.
Thank you Kerry!
We really are so grateful to Kerry for all her support. Kerry’s personal experience and journey with hearing loss and hearing aids means she understands with first hand experience how important our hearing is. How huge an impact hearing aids can have on a deaf person’s opportunities and confidence. Kerry wasn’t born deaf so already had clearly developed and advanced communication skills before she lost her hearing.
Thank you amazing NHS too!
All children born in the UK and identified as deaf in their early years receive the very best hearing aids, thanks to our amazing NHS. Sadly this isn’t the case in vast areas of the world. Children born deaf who don’t have access to hearing aids also never learn to speak. Leading them to deaf and mute lives at risk of enormous danger and exploitation. Working together we can make a difference. We can make a positive impact to lives, one hearing aid at a time.
How you can help us too:
If you have any no longer needed hearing aids, please do send them to us. So that we can redistribute them around the world to people with no access to them.
We have many drop off points – HERE.
We’re always thrilled to receive them through the post to:
Hearing Aid Recycling, PO Box 816, Banbury, OX16 6TW
Please do email us for further information on: info@hearingaidrecycling.co.uk
Or why not give us a call on: 0300 102 1565 and we’ll work out how we can support you donating any devices to ‘help others hear’.
More information on the fabulous Kerry Daynes can also be found in all the usual places: