Victoria lost her hearing at the age of two. When she was 31 years old and about to have a baby, she heard about cochlear implants.
Victoria tells her story...
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I lost my hearing, for some unknown reason, at the age of two. I’d just begun to talk but when my younger sister started catching me up, my parents realised something was wrong.
The education authorities wanted me to go to a boarding school for deaf children. They said I would never talk, and that I would have to learn Paget Gorman sign language. They were convinced that I would not be able to survive in a hearing world – every step of the way I have wanted to prove them wrong!
Fortunately, my parents insisted I was educated with hearing children and Mum constantly corrected my pronunciation. Thanks to her determination and near-constant nagging, I got a 2:1 degree in Anthropology and trained as an accountant.
I relied on lip-reading and hearing aids for 28 years. But when I was expecting my daughter Matilda, I visited a consultant to find out the chances of her being born deaf and after about three minutes he said, “Why haven’t you had a cochlear implant?”.
I hadn’t even heard of cochlear implants before then but I was a perfect candidate and in August 2005 I became the first adult to be fitted with a Nucleus Freedom at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.
Now I can hear Matilda singing in the car. My hearing aid used to amplify every sound, so if I was in the car all I could hear was the engine. The implant is more selective, and I can hear her singing Baa Baa Black Sheep and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star — it’s the most beautiful sound.
I ran the 2006 London Marathon to raise £11,500 for Deafness Research UK because I want to give more people the chance to have an implant too.
