Customer stories: real experiences with hearing aids

“It took me more than 20 years to realise I had a hearing loss. I’d notice little things but nothing that worried me, that was until my golden wedding anniversary in 2023, that’s when it all hit me.”

“My hearing was damaged more than 25 years ago which I suspect was work-related, but it wasn’t bad enough for me to realise at the time, or for it to affect my day-to-day. I retired early at the end of 2005. At the time, my hearing didn’t seem to be that bad, but it manifested itself into my voice being slightly louder than it otherwise would have been. I noticed that I was failing to hear what people had said, and in turn had started asking people to repeat themselves. The problem is the loss was so gradual, I didn’t notice it happening. You don’t wake up one morning not being able to hear, you just get there very slowly. But eventually, there comes a critical moment when you suddenly realise you’ve got to do something about it.”

“For me, that critical point was my golden wedding anniversary in 2023. We had the party in a large village hall with 60 plus people all singing, dancing, and talking to one another, along with our entertainment and the other noises you hear, like chairs scraping, glasses clinking, laughter, the usual boozy evening sounds of people having a lot of fun. I was moving from table to table to make sure I spoke to everyone, but I just could not hear what they were saying. It was dreadful, and so embarrassing. It felt like every minute for hours I was being punched in the face with the fact I couldn’t hear properly, and it was just unacceptable.”

“Prior to this, in 2022, after badgering from my wife and wider family, I went to another audiologist (not Boots Hearingcare) for a standard hearing test. The person I saw seemed to know little about the hearing aids he was selling and couldn’t answer any of my technical questions, and it put me off wanting to buy anything from them. I was disappointed by that experience and stopped looking. But, after my golden wedding party experience, I had to do something, I couldn’t continue the way I was. So, that’s when I decided to go to Boots Hearingcare, and what a difference!”

“Rachel Thomas is a diamond. If all Boots Hearingcare’s audiologists are like her, I’m amazed that anyone else can get any business. She answered every single question I asked. She was marvellous. Because of my experience with Rachel and Boots Hearingcare, I was fully committed to getting hearing aids. I understood everything, the difference between this hearing aid compared to that one, what features I needed, what ones I didn’t, I was 100% in with the experience and made the decision to proceed during the first appointment. I felt very positive; uplifted even.”

“During my hearing test, I was shown a chart detailing where someone with full hearing sits compared to someone with my type of hearing sits, and I was way down below the normal level. When I first got my hearing aids fitted, they turned the volume up to 60 percent of where they wanted my hearing to be, and believe me, that itself was a massive change. It sounded as though people were speaking with lots of sibilants, words containing the letter s and the sh sound. My own voice sounded like the snake from the film “Jungle Book”, but I very quickly got used to it. Even saying the word ‘voice’ sounded weird, but it all sounds normal to me now.”

“My childhood memory of hearing aids were these big pink things with huge curly wires, but the hearing aids are now much smaller and more discreet than I had feared. On the day I got my hearing aids. I went to the pub with two friends. In the first pub we went to, I sat opposite one of them with the other one my right, and I said ‘guys, there is something different about me tonight, what do you think it might be?’ I could feel them looking me up and down trying to work out what it was. One said, ‘Have you had a haircut?’ and the other said, ‘I’m totally clueless’. When I said, ‘I’m wearing hearing aids!’ their reaction was great, they couldn’t see them at all, and I have short hair, they thought the hearing aids were part of my spectacles. These two guys, who knew me well, couldn’t tell I was wearing hearing aids, so for me, that was a massive seal of approval on their unobtrusiveness.

“Another thing I loved about my hearing aids when I first got them was not having to ask people to repeat things all the time. I’ve developed so many ways of asking people to repeat things, you wouldn’t believe it. I felt such relief to not have to do that anymore. I’m so used to my hearing aids now; I mostly forget I’ve got them in.”

“I’ve already persuaded one person in my village to go to Boots Hearingcare to get a hearing test, and I will continue to encourage people to go, the test is free! What have you got to lose? You’ve got 90 days to decide if the hearing aid isn’t working for you. I had resisted doing anything about my hearing loss because of how I felt about hearing aids in general; I didn’t want people to treat me any differently because I’d got hearing aids, but in actual fact, people treat you differently because you don’t have them. I wish I’d had aids years ago. I’ve gone from resisting them for emotional reasons, to being a total fan.”

Mel, 58, is a busy mum of two grown up sons, and despite not having opportunities whilst at school, she now runs her own estate agency business with her husband, Steve. When Mel isn’t working, she loves to keep fit, attending her local leisure centre four times week doing yoga, Pilates, cardio sculpt, and Latin line dancing. Mel also started Irish set dancing with her sister in her 30’s which led her to perform in front of 500 people for St Patrick’s Day. Mel’s mother-in-law passed away in 2020 and whilst going through her things, Mel found an old sewing machine. Because of this, Mel now attends sewing classes at Windsor College and is creating lots of items such as tote bags, tissue holders, gift bags, curtains, blinds, and clothing in her part-office part-sewing room, aka her ‘woman cave’, making her late mother-in-law proud.

Mel knew she was suffering with hearing loss and tinnitus but felt she was too young to get help. She bravely made an appointment at Boots Hearingcare and hasn’t looked back since.

“I lived with an untreated hearing loss for 15 years before my hearing care journey started in 2022. I brushed it off in the beginning, but my hearing got progressively worse – I couldn’t hear anyone.”

“I began noticing my hearing loss when we went out to restaurants with friends, especially if it was a noisy environment, I could only hear the person next to me, but if the table was long and someone was sat in front of me, there was no chance I’d hear them. I was beginning to look at their lips and attempt to lip read instead. Rather than thinking into it, I just brushed it off as the restaurant being noisy and that everyone was struggling to hear, not just me. But my hearing just got worse, and worse.

“When lockdown hit and I had the TV on, I remember my husband saying to me ‘the sound of the TV is so loud!’ I had the volume on about 35, yet Steve, my husband, could hear it at volume 13. Again, instead of thinking I had a hearing loss, I just said to him ‘you’re different to me, you can hear a pin drop, I can’t’.

“After lockdown ended, I was so excited to get back out there and get back into bars and restaurants, but I soon realised my hearing was awful. I felt so isolated because I wasn’t part of people’s conversations. I couldn’t keep up with what they were saying. People spoke to me expecting a certain reply, but because I didn’t hear them properly, I gave them an unexpected, unrelated answer causing them to look at me funny. It was quite embarrassing really.

“I also had an instant worry that I was getting old. You only see old people with hearing aids and the ones that you think about are the big, chunky ones, I thought to myself ‘I don’t want to go down that road’, I was scared stiff and was very tearful. At that moment I hadn’t even turned 60 yet and I was still doing things young people do, like going to pubs, clubs, and bars, and just feared I was getting old before my time.

“The turning point for me was watching Kaye Adams on Loose Women, and listening to how she got her hearing tested at Boot Hearingcare and is now wearing a hearing aid. I thought ‘right, now is the time, let’s do it’.

“I went along to Boots Hearingcare and was told that I had a mild hearing loss. My audiologist, Helena, was so gentle and understanding, and made me feel relaxed. As well as hearing loss, I’ve had tinnitus for years and Helena is a tinnitus specialist, so she knew so much about it, and I really did learn a lot from her. Helena never tried to sell me any hearing aids, but she did want me to know how much they would benefit me. For example, when I put them on, Helena took me outside into the department store and I couldn’t believe the difference. I could hear people talking, I could turn my back and hear what has happening behind me, I remember thinking ‘this is unbelievable’. Since I had my appointment with Helena, I have encouraged my mum to get a hearing test and she now wears hearing aids too.

“I opted for the state-of-the-art Phonak hearing aids and really haven’t looked back. Now, I can go to busy pubs and bars, and I can hear people. What is great about them is that I can discreetly turn them up if I’m in a particularly loud environment. When I first found out I had a hearing loss, I never realised how funky the hearing aids could be, it’s also easier now than it once was to wear hearing aids, because everyone has something in their ear, like headphones, all the time. When Helena first handed me the hearing aids, I thought ‘is that it?’, I couldn’t believe how small they were, I was really surprised. I also love the fact that you can choose your hearing aids depending on the colour of your hair, it’s brilliant. Another thing I love about them is the connectivity. I bought Bluetooth headphones a while ago and I don’t even use them now because I can take my zoom calls via my hearing aids, it’s fantastic. I can also listen to music through them, talk to people on the phone through them, they do a lot more than I ever would have thought.

“My hearing aids have helped me to stay present at big events, I had a family wedding shortly after I had my hearing test and I was so worried I wouldn’t be able to hear, but thanks to my hearing aids I could hear the speeches, and everyone talking around me, it was great. I also do weekly dance classes where the teacher talks quietly and even with a microphone, I couldn’t hear her, but now with my hearing aids I can just discreetly turn them up and enjoy the class. My hearing aids are life-changing and have really opened my eyes to how bad my hearing was before.

“Going through this has made me encourage others who struggle to get their hearing tested. It really does change your life. Just go along to Boots Hearingcare and get tested, the first appointment only takes 15 minutes out of your day, what have you got to lose?”

Despite his hobbies and interests, David struggled for years with his hearing loss before making the decision to address it head on. He shares his experience of acknowledging his problem and doing something to solve it with the help of the expert audiologists at Boots Hearingcare.

“I first remember struggling with hearing around 2004 to 2005 but I didn’t realise I had a problem. My family had to put up with a deaf and moody grump for five to six years before I decided to do something about it and start my hearing care journey.”

“Throughout the years of living with an untreated hearing loss, I was avoiding facing the music and was responding negatively to whoever raised the issue with me. I thought because I was having trouble with my hearing, it meant I was getting old and falling apart, and because of this I was being defensive about what was happening to me.

“My hearing got so bad that situations arose at work where my boss would have to ask people to repeat themselves, because he knew I’d struggle through not being able to hear and not speak up. My family would also pick up on my hearing loss and say, ‘what’s the harm in getting it checked out’, but I would brush it off instead of taking them seriously.

“As time went on, these situations occurred more frequently, and I began to realise the extent of my hearing loss. It was starting to depress me, and I would isolate myself and shut off from everyone which was upsetting as I’ve always been a sociable person. One of the hardest parts was being aware of the things you were missing out on, like joking around with friends, it really started to get to me. My hearing loss happened gradually, rather than overnight, it happened in very small steps, so I didn’t wake up to it for a long time.

“I can’t pinpoint the moment I thought ‘right, it’s time to get my hearing tested’, it just happened. There may have been certain factors in the lead up to booking my test, maybe I felt left out of something, or my daughters had said about getting a test, or I felt grumpy which was a regular mood back then. I don’t like being grumpy around my family, I don’t like being grumpy full stop, so I thought ‘enough is enough’.

“I made my first appointment around 2009 to 2010 with Boots Hearingcare and from the moment I walked in, they were brilliant. If I had gone there and the staff were unwelcoming, made me feel humiliated or embarrassed, it could have set my whole journey back five years, but the team there were great and very accommodating, and it was the same in every Boots Hearingcare store I have visited over the years. They have all been friendly and informal, which is exactly what you want. I was in a very vulnerable situation, and they didn’t make a big deal out of it, they just took me through the process at my own pace, did what they needed to do and told me ‘no problem we are going to sort this out’ which is all I wanted to hear. That’s why I went with Boots Hearingcare, and it’s why I’ve stuck with them.

“There was an audiologist in the Canterbury store who used to work for a fashion designer, and I was very interested in clothes, so we would talk about that and other common interests we shared. These conversations helped me to attend my appointments, it wasn’t like I had to drag myself there, it was a pleasant experience. When I moved to Shropshire, I went to the Boots Hearingcare store in Shrewsbury, and again, my audiologist and I got along very well and like before, we spoke about our common interests and joked around with each other. Everyone I’ve seen has always been so professional, but never poker-faced or overly serious, they never tried to sell me anything for the sake of it.

It isn’t about plugging the latest hearing aids; it is about taking care of the person.

“When I first got my hearing aid, it was a gamechanger. I was on the train after my appointment, and I realised I could hear people’s conversations and the announcements. It was amazing because I had gone so long without this sort of interaction. For comparison, my wife has always been short-sighted and when she got her contact lenses for the first time, she said it was like the colours leapt out at her, she could see so much detail. It was a bit like that for me with my hearing aids, the realisation that I could hear again was gobsmacking, and quite emotional.

It made such a difference, and I will never ever take my hearing aid for granted.

“I plug my hearing aids in first thing every morning, and straight away I can hear the birds, I can hear my cats rampaging around my house, everything is switched on. My hearing aids are so much better than what I ever expected.

“They have also helped me to be involved in some of the most important events that I would have otherwise missed, like in 2016 when my eldest daughter got married. I could hear every single part of the ceremony and I was so thankful I wasn’t missing out; it wouldn’t have been the same if I was still battling with hearing loss.

“I would say to those struggling with a hearing loss to be kind to yourself. You aren’t proving yourself to be a better person because you aren’t going for a hearing test, it’s not a sign of weakness to get help. Just please get it checked out, don’t struggle, and have a stiff upper lip, you’ve got so many years where you will just be under-selling yourself, you won’t be as happy, don’t make your life more difficult than it needs to be. There really is nothing to lose by getting your hearing tested.

“I kick myself for waiting not days, not weeks, not months, but years to do it.”

Jeff Rich, 59, played drums with Status Quo for 16 years with their unique sound blasting out from huge banks of speakers.

But after over 3,000 live performances Jeff was left partially deaf. "I had 4,500 watts of amplification behind me, just so I could hear my drums! It never occurred to me to wear ear defenders and my ears would ring for days after a concert" says Jeff.

Jeff finally left Status Quo in 2000 to set up drumming workshops for children, visiting schools across the UK. Jeff says "I found it difficult to hear the children's voices and had to ask them to repeat their questions. It was at this stage I realised I couldn't struggle with deteriorating hearing any longer and needed to get some help."

In 2007, prompted by his wife, Jeff visited his local Boots hearingcare centre and, following a hearing test, was advised he would need hearing aids in both ears. Jeff's hearing aids are worn inside the ear, are barely visible and have made a huge improvement to his quality of life. Jeff wears his hearing aids all day, every day. "I have two children still at home, my daughter who's 2 years old and my son, who is just 20 weeks old. Being able to hear my daughter chattering away is a huge bonus" says Jeff.

In fact, Jeff has been so pleased with his hearing aids that he's recently upgraded to Phonak Exelia Art - the very latest in digital hearing aid technology. Jeff says "The sound is so much clearer and the icom system is brilliant - my aids work with my landline and mobile phone without any whistling or feedback. And I can also link my aids directly to my iplayer so that I can listen to music without having to wear headphones - the music plays directly to my hearing aids. My aids are also really easy to operate - when playing my drums I can flick the mute on at the touch of a switch."

"And there's no need to feel embarrassed about wearing hearing aids. I did at first; I worried about what the children would think at my school workshops. But they usually think I'm wearing ear defenders so I take the opportunity to explain they're hearing aids and, unless they protect their hearing, they could end up with poor hearing just like me" says Jeff.

Colin Tarling first became suspicious of his hearing loss over 20 years ago when he began struggling in crowded environments at his work place.

Colin explains "I couldn't join in with group conversation. I was also missing out on a lot of family conversation and started to shut myself off and read books instead".

Colin was initially tested by the NHS 4 years ago but struggled on until he heard about the extensive range of discreet and modern hearing instruments at Boots hearingcare.

Colin had a free hearing assessment at his local Boots hearingcare in Bournemouth and opted for the Audeo YES III system from Phonak. Colin chose this product because of its cutting edge technology and discreet styling.

Colin says "I'm overjoyed with my hearing aids; they're really discreet and easy to use. In fact they're so discreet I have to remind family members I'm wearing them and I now notice sounds I haven't heard for 20 years - such as the birds singing."

Colin adds "I felt very comfortable as the Boots hearing check was free with no obligation, and I have been particularly impressed with the high level of service and ongoing support received from my local Boots store".

Barry, has been wearing hearing aids for almost 10 years now, but when he first experienced hearing loss it was those close to him that noticed first.

''Barry wouldn't answer me if I was in a different room, or if he was watching the television" says his wife Barbara. "We used to visit the club every week and he would find it difficult - sitting back because he couldn't keep track of the conversation or join in."

Barry's first step was NHS hearing aids. Whilst happy that they improved his hearing there were still some challenges. Have his new Nano's helped combat these?

"At the club I can now hear everyone at the table; even when several conversations are going on at once - it's provided a massive confidence boost."

We claim the Nano is virtually invisible when in the ear. Would Barry agree?

"Unlike my others, no one can see these - in fact I had to take them out to show people - they were all very impressed at how small they were! Even I forget they're there; I put them in first thing in the morning and wear them all day. Just like my glasses, they're a part of me."

And it isn't just Barry who is enjoying the benefits of the Nano: "They've also made a difference to our relationship" says wife Barbara. "It's nice to have him back to his confident self."

So how would Barry describe his new Nano's? Simple: "They're the best thing since sliced bread."

Author Phillipa Faulks, who was fitted with a hearing aid at one of our centres, talks about her hearing loss.

I was lying in bed when my husband Martin climbed in beside me and said, 'I got the distinct impression that you didn't hear much of what was said this evening.' His comment struck a chord with me, but I just laughed off his concern. I agreed that the restaurant in which we'd spent the evening with friends had been rather noisy - but wasn't the food really delicious?

As a diversion tactic it was brilliant, but I couldn't sleep because what he'd said was true - the evening had indeed been one long battle for me, trying to follow the conversation and straining to catch what my friends were saying.

The next morning I went to the post office and was mortified when I had to ask the cashier to repeat herself no fewer than four times. And so I decided to have my hearing checked and made an appointment at my local Boots Hearingcare centre. Following a hearing test I was fitted with hearing aids.

The positive impact on my life is fantastic - things are so much simpler, easier and clearer, from listening to music to watching the soaps on television. I've even learnt that checkouts beep as they scan your shopping. I've regained my confidence, socialise more and no longer feel left out of people's conversations. It's wonderful to be part of the world again.