Volunteers required
Cambridgeshire Hearing Help is looking for more volunteers able to commit to at least two hours per month providing community NHS hearing aid maintenance at one or more of its 43 community Hearing Help sessions. No experience is required, although good eyesight (with glasses) and reasonable dexterity is essential.
The charity has been running since 1978 (previously under the name of CAMTAD) and relies on a team of over one hundred and fifteen dedicated volunteers.
Its work is a lifeline for those who face barriers to accessing mainstream audiology services because they are older, frail, have other disabilities, or live in rural areas.
New volunteers can start at any time and will also need to complete a free two-day hearing loss and hearing aid maintenance training course.
The next course is running on Wednesday 26th and Thursday 27th September 2018 between 10am and 4pm at Abbey Meadows Community Centre, Abbey Meadows Primary School, Galfrid Road, Cambridge, CB5 8ND.
Parking is free and refreshments and lunch will be provided. To book your place please Tel: 01223 416141, Text: 07852 699196, or Email: enquiries@cambridgeshirehearinghelp.org.uk
Amanda Morgan, Cambridgeshire Hearing Help’s Director, who herself uses an NHS hearing aid and cochlear implant, commented:
Providing NHS hearing aid maintenance in the community is a hugely rewarding volunteering role, and why many of our volunteers have served us for ten, twenty, and even thirty, years. The rewards include; putting a smile on somebody’s face because they can use their hearing aids again, and reducing their risk of suffering from loneliness, isolation, anxiety, depression and dementia. They also include being part of our passionate, caring, and supportive team of staff and volunteers, many of whom have shared experience of hearing loss.
Norman Hardy will be 81 this month and has volunteered for Cambridgeshire Hearing Help for over nine years. His hearing loss started at the age of five in WWII as a result of a V2 rocket bomb blast.
Norman says:
During the war a V2 rocket bomb landed across the road and the blast lifted me off the toilet seat and blew me through the bathroom door. From that day onwards I had ringing in the ears and a problem with my hearing, although I didn’t realise it at the time and often wondered why the teachers sat me at the front of the class when I was the tallest pupil. It was only when I was 16 and had my medical ready to go in to the forces that I was told I had a perforated eardrum. I consequently failed the medical and therefore became a printer’s apprentice, and, in those days, we weren’t provided with ear protectors in an environment that was so noisy we had to learn to lip-read to communicate with each other, so this further damaged my hearing.
I started wearing hearing aids at the age of 60, and they made such as difference. This resulted in my joining Cambridgeshire Hearing Help because I wanted to give back and help others with hearing loss. I love the volunteering because there is a great camaraderie within the team and huge appreciation for the work that we do, and it gives me the opportunity to tell people about assistive technology that could improve their hearing further, such as the Bluetooth streamer I use every day.
