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Andy Kirk loves a challenge. Despite severe hearing loss since a teenager
he has competed in dangerous sports and hobbies including
Motocross and and Water Ski Racing
Representing Team GB as a driver Andy was named Offshore Champion
8 years running as well as European Champion in 2002
before retiring But despite all his fiery determination
there is one thing Andy can't beat The Telephone
I think of all the issues I face the phone is my total nemesis
I've absolutely got no control at all over how a phone call is going to go
All my family know that if I do need to call them
it will be a short call just keeping to the basics
hopefully there's no answers so I can't get anything wrong
If I start to get drawn into a conversation I'm lost
Hello Mum Are you alright?
It's a bit strange but I can normally hear my mum
She knows how to speak to me She speaks slowly
clearly pronounces her words properly
Other times with other people It just doesn't happen
At Andy's mum's house It's a chance for Mum, Gail
Stepdad Tony brother Pete and his fiancee Kelly
to talk to Andy about his hearing It really started when you were about 7 or
8 you had a lot of tonsillitis
we took you to see the doctor and you had to have your tonsils out
and then you got measles How old were you when you first realised
you'd got a hearing problem? I think
probably 17 or 18
During that period from 18 up into your mid 20s
you didn't wear them very much they were rather hit and miss
you wore them if your mother moaned at you you put them in when you left the house
and when you got in the car with your brother you took them out
It's difficult you don't want to be
different I think when I first started wearing them
you think that everybody is looking at them Well, you're a teenager
and you are very conscious of everything I had one or two friends who would always
sort of make a bit of a joke out of it Not seriously
And how did you feel about that? It does make you feel bad
Did it hurt you or did you just feel...? It makes you self-conscious
I think as you get older your friends all get older
they're that bit more responsible Has it ever bothered you
not being able to hear for whatever you decided to do
as far as a hobby or sport is concerned has it?
No Over the years
we've dabbled in quite a few sports haven't we?
What was your favourite? What did you really get a lot from?
Water Ski Racing was the ultimate The most dangerous one of all
He'd be watching what the skier was doing and if he'd see him go through a rough patch
he would wave me down tell me to slow down
It does make you really proud to represent your country
If we're out I'll let Pete take the lead
menus waiters coming to order drinks
If we are at a table of ten or twelve people and everybody is yakking away
I've got no chance It seems to be
one of the sad things about somebody that is suffering
with a hearing problem is that people that surround them
will tend to talk to somebody else rather than get involved in
trying to make a conversation because it's difficult and hard going
Andrew could be in our company which he has been very recently
in a table eight of us on a table
and he's not been able to join in the conversation or the banter
or the jokes He's on the outside looking in
At work the next day Andy's manager Ali
only has good things to say about him from Andy's point of view
his hearing has never really held him back he's quite a tenacious sort of character
he was promoted some 18 months ago which we felt at the time that
he was the best person for the job I find him a lot more
focused Obviously because of his hearing problems
he tends to generally portray himself and focus on things a lot
better than most people
It can get a bit tricky in factory environments
If there's a lot of noise and we might have angle grinders
drilling all sorts going on
But I try and keep those situations to one on one
rather than a group discussion because you can concentrate on one person
and you have a better chance of getting the whole conversation
With meetings I normally try and make sure if I am in a
group I'm in the middle of it
so I can get a picture all round me of people
especially when they are talking Any urgency with those?
the what? Sorry the... the four of
BK units oh the new order yeah
Work have been really good they've bought me a phone amplifier
for my headset It works well
I can adjust the volume and tone levels on the call
Obviously you've then got three volume levels to play about with
you've got the phone you've got the amplifier
and then you've got the individual hearing aids themselves
If it's a really good line and someone is speaking clearly
not too quick I'll get by OK
but sometimes I do need to get colleagues to help me out
I tend to do most of my communication by email
All my customers know that they can contact me
I'll get straight back to them and for me it works really well
It keeps my calls down to a minimum I may only have 2 or 3 calls a week
which relieves the stress quite a bit In the case of our employees
with hearing difficulties we've been able to put in place
special phones or amplified phones to help with that
and we've also found as they've got more into the organisation
and working with their colleagues that sometimes especially with the
hearing difficulties we have found that face to face meetings
rather than telephone conversations actually make a big difference
and assist and we've found that very beneficial
The employees that we've had make a great contribution to our organisation
Having been given hearing aids as a teenager 25 years ago
Andy's experiences over the years have really changed
how he feels about them now With hearing loss
it's very easy to shut yourself away because when you are out and about
you are concentrating so much all the time
you could just start to feel that it's easier to stay at home
probably turn into a bit of a recluse rather than get out there and face it
In my younger years I was so conscious of wearing hearing aids
I quite often used to go out with one in now I'm bald I can't really hide it
The thing I have found about hearing aids generally
you think people are judging you the majority are just probably trying
to work out how to deal with you To be honest
I don't really see my hearing aids being any different
to somebody wearing glasses I think as you are younger
and growing up you get used to
one or two kids at school wearing glasses and it becomes normal
but you're not really around people that wear hearing aids
With a hearing test it's only as good as your hearing
and reactions on the day of the test You keep going back
you've got a problem you go back
get them adjusted a bit more and the more times you go
through that process the better the hearing aids will be
I really miss music
it's only been probably the last year
where I have been able to listen to music better
I think the technology has moved on in the hearing aids
and it separates the sounds a little bit better
It would just be really nice to listen to music
and hear everything all instrumental
and vocals I used to love going to watch Formula 1
MotoGP Motorbike racing
you can hear the noise but you can't really pick up
the tones of the engine every car
motorbike the engine has got a slightly different
tone to it you can't really separate
those noises now It's something I really miss
When you are in a pub the dynamics of it
if you've got four or five friends you're all joined in a conversation
it gets very hard I tend to watch people
and their body language sometimes you can actually find
yourself laughing because you have seen
one of your friends laugh you haven't heard what they've said
but you think it might be a good idea to laugh
Like all of us Andy has moments when he feels
more vulnerable than others and for him it's night-time
The most vulnerable time for me is at night
once I've taken my hearing aids out I obviously can't hear anything
security-wise it's safe but
if a fire was to break out not necessarily in this flat
but in one of the other surrounding flats no-one would ever be able to wake me up
but I've now got equipment
that will do the job If the
entry phone downstairs is rung or the smoke alarm goes off
the telephone rings or the doorbell in the hallway
that will set my alarm clock off with a vibrating pad
that I've got under my pillow so you've got the pad vibrating
you've got the strobe lights on the alarm clock
it's guaranteed to wake you up you'll never sleep through it
I certainly wouldn't change anything everybody has their own differences
quirks in the way we deal with life
I like to think my personality outshines my deafness at the end of the day