My hearing aids are so comfortable I forget I’m wearing them!

AS she cranked up the volume on the TV again, so she could hear it, Helen Nourish was reminded of her mum. She explains: “My mother wouldn’t get hearing aids, even though she obviously had age-related hearing loss and needed them. It used to drive me mad.” But having turned 60, Helen realised that she had now developed her own hearing difficulties and needed to get help.

She says: “It was about five years ago that I began to notice I was suffering with hearing difficulties.

“As well as having the television turned up loud I was always asking people to repeat themselves. It got to the stage where I couldn’t even hear the birds singing.

“My husband John would laugh and say ‘You’re getting just like your mum!’”

Helen, a former credit controller, went to see her GP who referred her to an NHS hearing loss clinic where she was given hearing aids.

She says: “I realise that there are financial constraints in the NHS and I don’t want to knock them, but, to be honest, I don’t think the test was very thorough.” And before long she had given up using her NHS aids. She recalls: “They made everything very loud, but with no clarity. And the dome that went into my left ear wasn’t comfortable. So I stopped using them altogether.”

A keen walker, golfer and bowls player, Helen’s social life began to suffer as a result.

She says: “I couldn’t hear what was being said in groups, so I would sit not saying much – I felt like I was missing out.”

Her sons, Luke, 46 and Simon, 43, began to notice her difficulties too.

Helen remembers: “They’d say, ‘Oh mum, you’re really going to have to do something about your hearing!’”

“I decided that I wasn’t prepared to put up with the situation any longer.”

Last year, after researching online, Helen decided to make an appointment at her local branch of Amplifon, a global hearing specialist.

She says: “The audiologist did a very thorough test and was able to explain that the reason I was getting discomfort was because I had narrow ear canals.

“She recommended some different sized hearing aids which were better suited to my ears.”

Since getting her new aids Helen, now 66, hasn’t looked back. She says: “They are so comfortable I forget I’m wearing them.

“The sound quality is much better and they even help with my tinnitus. Because I can hear other sounds better I don’t notice the ringing in my ears so much.

“I was really impressed with the level of aftercare service too. I can pop in any time to have them tweaked.”

One of the biggest advantages Helen has found from her new hearing aids is that they connect to her iPhone.

She explains: “I hear the ringing direct to my ear, rather than from the phone – it’s brilliant.”

Not only has her improved hearing given Helen’s social life a boost, she can also chat happily with her two grandchildren, Sam, 9 and Poppy, 7, again when they call.

She smiles: “It’s wonderful to be able to chat to them on the phone and hear what they are saying at last.

“I would definitely recommend Amplifon to others.”