To be selected to take part in the recent BBC2’s recent TV series ‘Special Forces: Ultimate Hell Week’ you would be expected to have certain qualities: Strength, mental discipline and stamina for certain. But the ability to hear? This TV show tested people to the extremes so you would imagine that having a lifelong disability would rule them out of the show from the start.
John Durance however, who made it to the final of the popular series was born with a hereditary congenital condition which gave him profound hearing loss. In his case, that means that without a hearing aid he cannot hear any speech. He would even struggle to hear a jet engine flying over his head or pneumatic drill around the corner.
John visited The Hearing Centre in Leicester for the first time in September 2014. He had always worn NHS hearing aids until a friend who was a current client of The Hearing Centre recommended that he came to see me to look at what other options are available.
We were able to support John with obtaining funding for his hearing aids through Access to Work and fitted him with the latest ReSound ENZO hearing aids. As John had always led a very active lifestyle the ENZO aids were a perfect match for him.
His previous NHS hearing aids meant that he had great difficulty hearing on the phone. The new hearing aids allowed him to have direct streaming from him mobile phone into both hearing aids. He also has a hearing app on his iPhone that allows him to have control of the sound, for example when on his bike he can increase the wind reduction. He also no longer needed the subtitles on the TV with the use of the TV box on his new hearing aid system.
After passing the selection course for the BBC2 Series Special Forces: Ultimate Hell Week, John came to see me explaining that now he needed to look at what would be the best equipment for him. We were able to upgrade his hearing aids to the newly released ReSound ENZO2. With these hearing aids, we were able to fit him with the ReSound Multi Microphone. This works on a range of up to 25 meters. Up to three microphones can be used at one time and the instructor would be able to wear the microphone and their voice would be transmitted directly into John hearing aids. Without this device, John would not have been able to hear the instructors and would have struggled to make it to the finals of the TV show.
John proved himself on the series and wanted to show other disabled people that they shouldn’t let barriers stop them from achieving what they want to. He got through to the final, but did not quite get all the way to win the show. If you watched the show you will realise what a remarkable achievement it was for anybody to get that far. But with John’s profound hearing loss it made his achievement all the more impressive.
If you would like more information about the hearing devices that we helped John with or would like to learn more about the new hearing devices on the market, please contact The Hearing Centre.