Growing Up with Sound—and Losing It

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In January 1975, I was a 17-year-old farm kid from Te Pirita, Canterbury, starting a new job as the "office boy" at Christchurch’s Radio Avon. The station had only been running for six months. Suddenly, I was navigating one-way streets, handling records, and living on $17.50 a week in a Papanui boarding house.

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Then came the weekend disco gigs. They paid better, and the crowd—mostly city high school students—loved the latest promo tracks. That’s where it began: a slow, progressive hearing loss, likely caused by cueing records with headphones turned too high.

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The Moment I Knew

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Fast forward 28 years. I was in a high-stakes business presentation in Auckland as a creative director—and I couldn’t hear key parts of the meeting. We lost the account. That was the turning point. At 40, I finally got a hearing test.

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Starting with Hearing Aids

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ACC funded my first hearing aids in 1997. They helped, especially as I took on senior creative roles in Australia. But they weren’t perfect. At an international conference in Singapore, one of my hearing aids started feeding back during my keynote speech. Because I couldn’t hear high frequencies, I didn’t notice. It was loud enough to stop the entire conference. Hotel security got involved. The fire brigade was on its way. Then I realized—it was my hearing aid. I turned it off. Problem solved.

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Working with Cochlear

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Ten years later, I found myself working with Cochlear in Sydney, writing radio campaigns and getting to know the incredible technology and passionate people behind the cochlear implant. I remember a media interview with a recipient. When asked what she first remembered after activation, she smiled and said, “Hearing you on the radio for the first time.” The talkback host loved it—we got great coverage.

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Why I Chose a Cochlear Implant

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After returning to New Zealand, I wanted a cochlear implant. But my hearing wasn’t bad enough—yet. That would take another 10 years. After seven sets of hearing aids and years of frustration, the time finally came.

Getting approved for a cochlear implant is a rigorous process. I went through extensive assessments with audiologists, ENT specialists, surgeons, and other recipients. It was also emotional—realising how much I’d missed in my children’s lives and how often my partner had to repeat herself. No, I’m not telling everyone about the surgery. “I wanna hear what those people have been saying about me…”

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Next Steps

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Surgery is coming soon. I’ll update you after the procedure and share how recovery goes. If you’re considering a cochlear implant or living with hearing loss, know that you’re not alone—and that change is possible.