Deaf model bids to be next Kate Moss
A MODEL who is going deaf is determined to be the next Kate Moss.
Katie Lee, 26, was diagnosed with bilateral hearing loss caused by a genetic mutation.
After setting up her own hairdressing business she was persuaded by a client to start modelling. Soon she was snapped up by Zebedee
EXCLUSIVE
Management – a top agency for models with disabilities.
Katie, who lives with her boyfriend Lewis Sutton, 33, in Ashford, Kent, had hearing problems while at school.
She said: “It was hard to have friendships. If you can’t hear properly people assume you’re stupid.”
In 2014 Katie was given large hearing aids. She said: “I’ve been taking them out at night but I can’t hear myself breathe, which gives me anxiety. I sleep with my hand on my chest so I can feel it going up and down.”
But last month, Katie was fitted with Hidden Hearing aids, which “transformed” her life. She said: “I want to make it as a model. Kate Moss inspires me.”
● For information on hearing loss, visit hiddenhearing. co.uk
AN ARMY cadet died of a rare stroke caused by him quickly turning his head, doctors say.
Ben Littlewood was found suffering a seizure on the kitchen floor by his mother after he failed to answer her phone calls last April.
Surgeons did not identify the cause until four days after he was admitted to intensive care.
Ben, of Dukinfield, Greater Manchester, died in hospital four days after that.
It is thought the 17-year-old turned his head quickly and tore an artery, which sent a blood clot to his brain.
Dr Christopher Douglass, a consultant neurologist at Salford Royal Hospital, said: “It’s important to say nobody suspected a stroke and these kind of strokes are very unusual, even in older patients.
“In a 17-year-old lad who’s fit and well, thinking about a rare stroke wouldn’t be top.”
Damaged
He said in young people the most common cause was a blood clot from a tear or blockage.
“The vein can be damaged by posture, people who have been painting, just tipping their head back or in one case a person reversing down a lane and just turning the head can do this.”
But, he said: “In one in five cases we don’t find a cause and it’s potentially impossible to know.’’
Ben had a CT scan at Tameside Hospital, but tests showed his brain was normal.
He underwent another scan on April 7 when doctors realised he had suffered an ischaemic stroke – caused when the blood supply to your brain is severely reduced.
Dr Shiva Koteeswaran, who carried out the initial scan, said he had not encountered the condition in 12 years of being a radiologist.
Recording a narrative conclusion, coroner Chris Morris said: “This is very rare in the population let alone in someone of Ben’s youth.
“I accept Dr Douglass’s evidence that we cannot be totally sure of the cause in Ben’s case. It’s likely to be associated with sudden or extreme movement of the neck causing dissection of the relevant artery.
“By the time this ischaemic stroke was finally diagnosed there were no realistic treatment options.”
After the hearing in Stockport on Tuesday, Ben’s mother, Vicki Brocklehurst, called for “greater awareness and research” into the condition. Earlier, she told how Ben, a carpentry student, failed to respond to her telephone call at around 5pm and she raced to the family home.
She explained: “I said to my colleagues, ‘I’m going to have to go home – something’s not quite right.’ “I just had the feeling.
“I remember walking in the house and the dog ran to get me and then ran straight back to the kitchen where Ben was.”
Family and friends raised £2,100 for the Stroke Association following Ben’s death.