Almost everyone's life has been touched by hearing impairment in some way a child with glue ear, a teenager with tinnitus, an older person with deteriorating hearing. Deafness can change lives dramatically. All too often it condemns people to a life of silence, sadness and despair. Yet it needn't be this way.
Medical research holds the key to better prevention and treatment even a cure.
That's why my wife and I founded Defeating Deafness, the UK's only national charity dedicated to helping deaf and hearing-impaired people through research. Despite the fact that the charity relies entirely on voluntary funding, Defeating Deafness has been behind many of the most important breakthroughs in hearing research. Thanks to Defeating Deafness, deaf babies can be identified at birth, new digital hearing aids have been developed and a cure for deafness is no longer such a distant dream. After almost 25 years without sound, medical research gave me the chance to hear again. My cochlear implant seems like a miracle, but it's actually the result of many years of research by skilled scientists.