Looking at "Life Two"

Being hard of hearing is just another part of her amazing new life since the 7 July bomb at Russell Square, says Gill Hicks. 
 
Gill Hicks was late for work the day of the London bombings on 7 July 2005. She was in a rush to get to a meeting. There were problems on the Tube and so she took the fateful decision to take a different route. She was standing right next to Germaine Lindsey on a crowded Piccadilly Line train when he detonated the bomb in the tunnel near Russell Square tube station. Miraculously, she survived. Her life hung in the balance for days and both her legs were amputated below the knee. When she came round, her old life (which she calls "Life One") was over and "Life Two" was just beginning. As well as losing her legs, she was also deafened by the blast. Speaking of her rescue nearly two years after the day, she says, "I could hear my rescuers say, "stay with us". I could hear muffled things. But at that stage I think my ears were still bleeding and ringing".

Justice at Last

The government has finally changed its policy on veterans after so many members supported our successful veterans campaign.
 
Thousands of veterans who have a hearing loss because of their time in service will no longer have to wait months, or even years, for a digital hearing aid ­ thanks to our veterans campaign and your support. Over the last 14 years, around 100,000 veterans have been told they have damaged their hearing serving their country, and will not get a pension or lump sum payment for this. Like others, they then have to wait up to two years for digital hearing aids on the NHS. This is because, in the past, the government has said veterans can only have priority treatment for a condition for which they receive an award. As a result of our campaign, the minister for veterans, Derek Twigg, announced that priority treatment now applies to all medical conditions due to service, "irrespective of whether they result in a pension".

All hands on DECT

We take a look at six new cordless digital phones and finds big differences between them, especially for hearing aid wearers.
 
There seem to be more cordless phones for sale than any other type and their range of features is growing rapidly. As DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) cordless phones are so popular, we thought it time to take another look at what's new on the market. We chose four products designed for people with a hearing loss, plus two new models from Panasonic; their new big button phone and a bone conduction phone designed for use by people with a conductive hearing loss. Three of these models also had built-in answering machines.

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