“It made life so much easier”: support from our helpline to navigate hearing aids

Barbara shared her story with us about how our helpline advised her on audiology care, and how – when it comes to problem-solving your hearing aids – little changes can make a huge difference…

My name is Barbara Roberts. I’m 88 years old, and I live in Braintree in Essex. I’ve had a very busy life – I brought up three children and I was volunteering with the Scouts (taking young people to camp and doing badge days, etc).

In my early 50s, I had my cataracts removed, and for several years, I could see absolutely perfectly without glasses. But after several years, and all at once, I realised that I couldn’t see properly in my right eye. A couple of years after that, I was in an airport in France going down the steps to get on the plane, and suddenly, in front of me, everything moved. I had a variety of tests done, and the hospital told me there was nothing they could do for me, that my sight had gone and that the bit of sight I still had left would deteriorate over the years.

Twelve years ago, I began to realise that I wasn’t hearing very well. I had several tests and was told that my hearing was going. At that point I had NHS hearing aids and they had tiny batteries which I couldn’t replace without help because of my sight loss.

I knew that there was nothing I could do about my sight loss, but I felt with my hearing, there was a possibility that I could get better hearing aids. I made an appointment with a private practitioner to get private hearing aids but I was getting dreadful background noise, and I wasn’t happy with them. I went back many times, and each time, they would be adjusted, and I would be assured that that, yes, they would be so much better. But I was never really happy with how they worked. 

Then one day, I had a phone call from Angela, the Helpline Advisor at Deafblind UK. She just asked me how I was, what I was doing, and I began to tell her about the hearing aid issue. She suggested that I got in touch with the NHS again because I was still entitled to better hearing aids on the NHS, and she made some suggestions about what to do next.

With Angela’s support, I had an appointment with the audiologist and, as I went in, he said, “That little box there is for you, it’s got a rechargeable hearing aid box.” I couldn’t believe it. The fact that I didn’t have to get help to replace tiny batteries any more made life so much easier.

I’m very thankful for all Angela’s help and advice. She was lovely, she listened to me over several weeks and I appreciate all that she did for me. Deafblind UK are there to support you. They’re on the end of the phone. They will listen to you.