Overcoming the denial of hearing loss

PAUL Tredwell is an all-round action man. He served in the Navy, spent years in the fire service, and is now an off-road driving instructor for Land Rover – but he kicks himself for not taking action over his hearing loss much sooner than he did.

“I was a typical bloke,” he says. “I was in denial, thinking there was nothing wrong with my hearing, it was just that other people were mumbling.”

But now he jokes he has become a bionic man, because his state-ofthe-art hearing aids from Amplifon have made such a huge difference to his life. “In the morning I tell my wife, ‘I’m just going to put my bionics in.’

“The technology is amazing. My hearing aids have brought back so many sounds I was missing.”

Paul, 56, suspects his problems go back to his childhood, when he caught meningitis. He remembers losing his hearing completely and although it did come back, it was never quite the same.

A lifetime around loud noises – using shotguns growing up on a farm and with “water pumps screaming away at you” in the fire service – probably added to his hearing loss.

“To be honest, I spent many years struggling with hearing loss, but over the past 12 to 18 months it seemed to be getting worse.”

He admits: “I was secondguessing what people were saying, or responding with the wrong answer. My wife has said things to me that I just haven’t heard and I was forever asking her to repeat things. It was irritating for her and frustrating for me to keep asking her to repeat herself.

“At work we have a morning briefing and there can be 30 people in the room, all talking over each other. It used to be a complete mish-mash of noise I would sit there and look at people blankly.”

Socialising was becoming increasingly stressful, too.

“I remember one night we went out to a restaurant with friends and were sat in an alcove. I was at the end, which was the worst possible place for me. I sat there, watching people talking but not hearing anything they were saying. It was a real wake up call.”

So Paul booked a free hearing test with Amplifon, a global hearing specialist with more than 200 UK hearing centres and he says: “It was not until I had a proper hearing check that I realised how bad it was.”

His audiologist suggested he try ReSound LiNX2 9, virtually invisible hearing aids designed for people like Paul who have an active lifestyle and have to cope with a range of challenging listening environments.

They are made-for-iPhone connectivity, have access to advanced sound enhancement features on the ReSound Smart™ app, and all the latest smart features that deliver the effortless Surround Sound by ReSound™ hearing experience.

Amplifon offers all its customers the opportunity to trial hearing aids for 21 days before making a decision, but Paul says: “I bought them after just 10 days, they made such a huge difference.

“The day I had them fitted I walked down the road and could hear this swishing sound and thought, ‘That’s weird, is it the hearing aids playing up?’

“Then 30 yards down the road there was a gentleman sweeping his driveway and that’s what was making the swishing sound. I would never have heard it before.

“The clarity of the sound is incredible. I would definitely recommend Amplifon to anyone. They have been fantastic.”