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See how hearing aids changed Sandra’s life
Sandra Pierce, 58, from Wales, described herself as depressed, isolated and anxious before she found the right solution to her hearing loss.
“I no longer live in fear of the phone ringing!”
Sandra, a mum of three grown-up children who lives with her retired husband, Alex, has recently seen a meteoric rise in her career. She’s been promoted to manager at Tropic Beauty since having hearing aids fitted at Llandudno’s Hidden Hearing centre. In recognition of her achievements for the company, she also met Lord Sugar on stage at a Tropic Beauty conference.
Now Sandra wants to help other people in her situation by helping to challenge taboos around hearing tests and urging them not to wait for as long as she did to seek treatment.
She said: “Before having these hearing aids, I was gradually losing all my confidence. I became very anxious in certain situations, all because of my hearing loss. I would talk myself out of invitations and it got to the stage where I was just about coping and putting on a brave face. It was very isolating.
“Now I want to try to inspire others who have hearing loss that think they have no hope. Even if I get to inspire one person who struggles with hearing loss and help them to regain their confidence, I will have succeeded. I want to raise awareness of hearing loss and let people know that it is normal and nothing to be ashamed of.”
Forty percent of people over the age of 50 in the UK have some degree of hearing loss, yet surprisingly many people wait up to seven years or more before getting a hearing test.
Originally from Hertfordshire, Sandra first found out about her hearing loss when she was in her late 30s. She says, “It totally knocked the wind out of my sails. I could not believe it was happening to me. I saw two specialists before I would accept that there was a problem.”
Sandra Pierce
Watch Sandra as she talks about her journey to better hearing, and how embracing her hearing has had a positive impact on almost every aspect of her life.
| Audio | Visual |
| My hearing loss came when I was 38, it was quite a shock really. | Sandra is walking through a reception area. |
| My husband at the time kept saying to me, “I’m talking to you, you’re not listening to me.” | Sandra is shown sitting against a wall with a flowered pattern. She looks into the camera and is laughing. |
| And it started off as a mild hearing loss but in the last 20 years now it’s literally gone like that [motions a steep decline with hand]. I wanted to train to be a teacher. I’d gone back to do an IT access course. I couldn’t hear what the teacher when they were writing, when he had his back to me writing on the board, or any of the students in front of me, so I had to change tack. It affected my family life, I think… the children – especially my middle son, he’s got such a soft voice. One of the things I used to despair at more than anything was when you had to ask them to repeat themselves and they’d say, “It’s alright Mum, it’s fine, doesn’t matter.” Well it does matter, you do want to be part of their conversation and I used to find that very upsetting. I’ve done a lot of nodding in the right places and sometimes you get caught out because it doesn’t always work. I wanted to go to a networking meeting, but the thought of doing… They used to do these “you have to talk about yourself for a minute”. I couldn’t make out what the lady was asking me in front. |
Sandra is now sitting on a sofa in a grand reception room while she is talking to us. |
| I thought: “there’s got to be something better out there that can help me,” and that’s where I discovered Hidden Hearing. | Sandra is engaging lively conversation. She is sitting across a table from another lady in a dining room. |
| I think the service and support that I’ve got from Hidden Hearing has been first class, explaining why you should wear you hearing aids every day, and they check to make sure you’re getting on with them, if there’s anything that might need tweaking. | Sandra is sitting in the grand reception room. Sandra is again show engaging in conversation in a dining room. |
| Being told that you need to wear hearing aids every day for your brain to adjust and get used to them. | Sandra is laughing at what is being said by her companion in the dining room. Sandra is again sitting in the grand reception room. |
| Well the hearing aids that I wear now are Oticon Opn and they’re more discreet, you’ve got tiny, tiny tubes that run down the side here [motions to ear]. For the first time ever I now wear my hair up so, you know, I can literally wear my hair up and I don’t feel ashamed. I used to feel ashamed of big thick tubes, so they’re quite discreet and the clarity’s wonderful with them. | The camera is now focusing on Sandra’s hair from behind. She is pulling her hair up into a ponytail. Holding her hair with left hand, she is motioning to her right ear, gesturing to where the tubes on her old hearing aid would have been on the outside of her ear. |
| With my hearing aids and my mobile phone – I absolutely love it – the fact that it’s all Bluetoothed into your ears. Embracing my hearing has been one of the best things for me, my family and my career. It’s just improved year on year since I’ve had my new hearing aids. I’ve now gone from a team of - I had three, I think, three years ago to, I think, we’re up to 67. The best thing about switching my life on with my newfound hearing is I’ve got my confidence back. I’ve got my wiggle back – that’s how I see it – and I’m loving life again. | Sandra is sitting in a dining room, talking with a male and female companion. Sandra is sitting in the grand reception room. |
| Screen fades to white and then the Hidden Hearing logo appears. |
Sandra found out she has ‘cookie bite’ or mid-range hearing loss, which means that she can hear high and low frequencies ok, but the soft middle-range sounds are lost. That means she can only hear parts of conversations.
Sandra says, “I went to retrain with the hope of being a teacher and did a course at the local college. It was there I realised straightaway that I could not hear what the tutor was saying when he turned towards the blackboard or when any of the students spoke with their backs to me. All I could make out was muffled voices from the students. My anxiety levels went through the roof.
“Within 10 minutes of having these new hearing aids fitted, I went to a coffee shop to test them. I knew straightaway that they were far superior. I was absolutely thrilled. Not only was the noisy coffee shop more doable, but the Bluetooth® facility has also been a complete game-changer!
“I no longer live in fear of the phone ringing. The past two years my confidence has returned and I now coach 32 ladies through my Tropic Beauty business. That is something I could never have done before. I can do all the things a normal person takes for granted.”
Sandra now has her sights on becoming a senior manager with Tropic Beauty.
“I was genuinely on the verge of giving up before Christmas. I felt frustrated and worthless. When I got my new hearing aids fitted in April, things started to change. I became a manager in July and that is because I can communicate properly now.”
Harvey Shaw, the hearing care expert at Hidden Hearing Llandudno, says, “We are delighted that we have been able to be the catalyst which has completely changed the life and fortunes of Sandra and we applaud her continued success.”
If you’re suffering from hearing loss, book your free hearing test now.
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