Jeremy: I'm Jeremy, 32 years old, and I have been wearing hearing aids since the age of six years old.
I guess I have been quite stubborn about my hearing loss as I was growing up going to school with friends who didn't wear hearing aids. So it's only over the last few years that I actually realised I need products to help me to hear. And that is where I came across the Solutions catalogue. Within that I have found a number of products that made my life easier.
The first product that I bought was a set of wireless headphones. Being hard of hearing I tend to watch the TV a lot louder than others – especially my wife – so headphones have been a great help and they fit snugly with my hearing aids. I wear inner ear hearing aids so one of the things I get a lot of was feedback from other products, but these ones are great. You don't get feedback. You don't get the whistling in your ears.
Since then I have bought a number of other products from the RNID Solutions catalogue. The best one is the Bellman System. One morning I got up early and was sitting on the sofa without my hearing aids in watching the TV with subtitles on – trying to be as quiet as possible. And then Elle came running down the stairs and she was pointing at the door. I was like "what, what?" and the postman was knocking at the door and I didn't hear him. Literally the door was there and the sofa was here and I just didn't hear it. That was when I realised that I had to get an alerting system.
I bit the bullet and said I realised that I had to get a Bellman System installed. Mainly for security purposes – when I'm alone at home if the smoke detector goes off without my hearing aids I wouldn't hear it so the Bellman Alerting System helps me. With the vibrator under the pillow, it wakes me up. If the telephone rings, the doorbell goes, and also with the pager. If I'm outside in the garden I wouldn't hear these things so that is where the Bellman System has helped me over the past year.
The Vibralite watch – this is great because I have just moved to another office for work and I have to get up a lot earlier. Recently Elle was having to give me an elbow every morning to wake me up because I don't hear the alarm and now this watch vibrates and she can now sleep-in in peace whilst I'm getting up.
The products have been fantastic and I'm looking to probably buy a few more.