I was born at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, Somerset, as a normal healthy baby, then at five months I had meningitis, which left me with a bilateral profound hearing loss. (I'm lucky I didn't have anything worse than this.) From the age of 18 months I wore a body worn aid, before moving onto BTE hearing aids at the age of two. I used lip-reading and visual clues to help with communication. From the age of ten, I just wore one HA in the left ear, as then I found I had no hearing at all in the right.

Until I was about four, we lived in Taunton. From then we moved to Ilminster, Somerset and have lived here since. Since I needed specialised support i.e. with Hearing Impaired Unit etc, I did my education in Taunton (about ten miles from home).

I attended mainstream schools, with a hearing-impaired unit attached, for my primary and secondary education; both in Taunton, Somerset where I had support and used a radio aid which I loathed! But had no choice! The first I heard of a cochlear implant was when I was about 9/10 years old. I was watching a documentary on TV, and at the time was shocked by the sight of the surgery, and the fact that they were drilling into the skull! It looked frightening. Although I remembered my Dad asking if I would like one, it meant drilling a hole in the head and putting a wire through – I said no! Then it was shown on one of the ‘Children’s Hospital’ programmes – again I wasn't sure. I saw a CI operation being carried out on TV and it looked horrendous!

It wasn't until I was halfway through sixth form college when I was 17, after an appointment with my audiologist at Musgrove that I would look into it and be assessed to see if I was a potential candidate for a CI. Therefore, my GP referred me to my ENT at Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton, and from there to Mr. Robinson at Southmead Hospital in Bristol (60 miles away from home – this was the nearest hospital that does CIs). At that time I didn't see any harm in finding out about it.

I went up to Southmead Hospital for the initial appointment in March 2000 which was when I first met the CI team – I can remember this very clearly! They did several hearing tests and CUNY tests and even showed me the Body Worn Processor, which looked alien-like! I hated it at the time, but was reminded that by the time I should have a CI, it would be likely that I’d be having the BTE processor. Everyone kept saying to me that I hadn't got much hearing at all, that I had nothing to lose, but I didn't believe them as I felt I was hearing enough because my HAs were my lifeline. Someone once said to me ‘your hearing isn't good and with a cochlear implant it will be much better’ – but I didn’t believe them, as then I couldn't see what I was missing. Looking back now, I can see how little I had.

To be continued…