A 76-year old woman from St Ives has won a national prize draw to have state of the art hearing aids fitted to help her with long-term hearing issues, especially tinnitus.
Pamela McKay beat over 5,500 others to the star prize in the draw run by the British Tinnitus Association (BTA) and had the innovative hearing aid fitted at Hearing Healthcare Centre in Chesterton this week.
While she has no hearing at all in her left ear, the new hearing aid – the specialist Z series Micro RIC 312 from leading manufacturers Starkey Hearing Technologies – is expected to help in her right ear with the irritations brought about by tinnitus which affects one in 10 people in the UK according to the BTA.
Pamela has suffered from hearing loss since childhood when she had acute middle ear infections and had to have a series of operations and has been under NHS care since.
Pamela explains: “With tinnitus it’s silly things that drive you mad like people handling food in crinkly packaging or my husband going into the freezer and rattling around the packs of frozen food. It’s awful.”
Shopping too is a problem. Pamela continued: “I don’t go shopping now because the background music they play in shops is too loud for me.”
Audiologist Chris Carr, from Hearing Healthcare Centre, said the new hearing aid would make a difference. He said: “The aid is more efficient, much smaller, although using the same size battery and much neater and more comfortable.”
He continued: “Someone with Pamela’s severe hearing loss and with tinnitus as well is cut off almost completely without the hearing aid. She only hears the tinnitus.
“I often describe tinnitus to non-sufferers as like a candle in a dark room – all the focus is on the candle. With the new aid from Starkeys the light is also switched on in the room which takes the focus off the candle and gives someone like Pamela other more interesting things to concentrate on.”
A keen gardener, Pamela lives with her husband and son in St Ives and is looking forward to a brighter hearing future. Just a few days into the new hearing aid being fitted she has seen an improvement.
Neil Pottinger, Sales and Marketing Director at Starkey Hearing Technologies, said: “We are delighted that Pamela is already experiencing some relief. The Z series technology is specifically designed to mask and take the focus off tinnitus and Chris will be able to fine-tine to Pamela’s needs.”
Helen Goldsby-West, Head of Fundraising and Development at the BTA, said that the causes of tinnitus are still not fully understood, but tinnitus is associated with hearing loss, exposure to loud noise, stress and anxiety and ear infections.
She said: “At present there is no cure for tinnitus, so our charity is dedicated to helping find one, funding clinical research and providing information about self-help techniques that can be useful.”
