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When I look back on the old photos, I do not relate to that young deaf boy.
This is where inspiration for the name of the book came from – He Is Not Me.
From what I can remember of my earlier years, I would not describe it as ‘living’.
It was merely existing, very dependent on others.
When you are deaf, every day feels isolating.
Is that the kind of experience I would wish on anybody? Certainly not.
I started writing He Is Not Me many years ago,
but I actually found it painful to relive the bullying I experienced at school.
I think I stopped writing for about six months before I went near the manuscript again.
When I left school, I thought things would get better,
but some major things actually went wrong and I remember visiting my audiologist literally
demanding to be helped.
That day changed my life and, without realising it,
would eventually change the lives of those around me.
I was recently asked why I wanted to write a book about my cochlear implant experience.
To that, I say this:
there are so many people out there who do not know about this life-changing technology and,
knowing this, it breaks my heart to think that deaf people out there might still be suffering
at the hands of the bullies, or may be miss out on opportunities.
With all the development in cochlear implant technology,
we are now seeing children do all the things I could not do when I was young.
I wish I could somehow travel back in time to tell a younger me that
everything is going to be okay,
that your life isn’t going to be as hard as you think it’s going to be.
I can honestly saying that I didn’t start living until I was twenty-three,
the day I got my cochlear implant.
Hailed as one of mankind's most amazing inventions,
the cochlear implant has changed the lives of more than 350,000 deaf people throughout the world.
Stuart was implanted in 2001.
In his compelling and moving account of life as a profoundly deaf child and an implanted adult,
he shares with us his journey to the hearing world.
He Is Not Me explores themes such as childhood bullying,
discrimination in the work place and the conflict between the deaf and hearing worlds.
Visit the ‘He Is Not Me’ website for more information.