Take our free online hearing check. You can also call RNID's telephone hearing check on 0844 800 3838 that Stan mentions in the video above (calls from a BT landline cost up to 5p per minute. Other providers' charges may vary. Call set up charge may apply).
Stella: My name is Stella Freed and this is about my husband Stan and his hearing.
Stanley: I run two music classes at the University of the Third Age in London. Music means a lot to me so you could perhaps readily understand why hearing means such a lot. I kept getting told by my family and my daughter: "What's the matter with you? You're not hearing us?"
Stella: After years actually of him saying that I mumbled and he mumbled, eventually he had this RNID check on the telephone and they told him he did have a hearing loss and that he should go and see his GP. Consequently it led to him having his hearing aid.
Stanley: Within six weeks I was up and running with these things. Now it's made one hell of a difference. I'm hearing things a lot better.
Stella: It's made a terrific difference to him I'm sure. It has to us all around him of course but I think it has made a tremendous difference to him, particularly as his love is music.
Stanley: Now here is where I can adjust my hearing aid to hear this properly. Three clicks on that side and we are in business. The fact of the matter is that once you get them, I can't do without them. They go into my ears in the morning and they come out when I go to bed and that's the end of it. If you need a walking stick, have a walking stick. If you need something to improve your faculties, like hearing aids, then for heaven's sake get them because it really is an essential. A lot of people can look at this from the cosmetic point of view. Well it's wrong. Be comfortable, you know, make your life easy and - not to put it too bluntly - bugger the cosmetics. Live instead, it's much better for you.
RNID have done a lot of work on this and I understand it's soothing that you are able to get them on the national health, via national health services, so it's well worth going to see your doctor if you're in any doubt at all. Catch it young. Don't let it get to the stage where you can't do anything about it.
How about that?