One in five people in the UK are living with hearing loss* and deafness. They include comedian and actor Samantha Baines, who is on a mission to help educate others
Iwas 29 years old when I was told I needed a hearing aid. Looking back, there were lots of signs, but I didn’t recognise them. At school I would sit in the front row of classes so I could hear the teacher and, at home, I turned up the TV, convinced people were mumbling. I also had very poor balance, which led to me falling over a lot, and I found it hard to hear people in crowded places with a lot of background noise, which could be problematic in my job as a comedian.
Nowadays, all newborn babies have their hearing tested, but when I was born this wasn’t the case. As a child, I had grommets put in my ears and I could frequently hear a high-pitched beeping sound. In my late 20s, I was at a music gig with friends when, standing by the speakers, I started hearing a scrabbling noise. This kept happening whenever I was in a loud environment and I began to wonder what was wrong – it felt like there was a spider living in my head.
I went to see my GP, who referred me to an audiologist. I discovered I had two types of tinnitus – the high-pitched beep, which is constant, and a whooshing or scrambling noise brought on by loud noises. I was relieved to have a diagnosis, although the future felt uncertain. There was no ‘cure’ for my tinnitus; it was more about lessening the symptoms.
I was referred for another test to investigate further.
In a hearing test, you sit at a desk in a room with sound dampening panels, put some headphones on and an audiologist plays a series of beeps or words in a random order. When you hear a noise, you have to raise your hand or click a clicker. In an eye test, you can see the letters that you can’t make out, but in a hearing test, you can’t hear what you can’t hear. I thought I’d done really well, so it was a huge surprise when the audiologist told me I had hearing loss in both ears. It was worse on my right side and I was advised to wear a hearing aid. Despite all the signs, I hadn’t expected it at all.
After my appointment, I cried on the phone to my mum, shakily holding the leaflet I’d been given, which was full of pictures of older people. I was terrified. Would my hearing loss get worse? Was my life over? And how would I manage my job and daily life?
Six years on, I’ve realised that all these worries were unfounded. I’ve continued working and built a thriving career, creating my podcast, The Divorce Social, acting in shows such as The Crown, performing comedy at live gigs and fronting the West End’s Magic Mike Live show. I have also written two children’s books with deaf main characters. Life isn’t over – in fact, it’s better.
There’s no way of knowing if my hearing
