Cochlear Awareness Network

Featured Stories

Janes's Story

As a child, my mother always told me to be careful what you wish for. I wished for peace and quiet and that's exactly what I got. I woke up one morning in 2011, started my day like any other but finished that day profoundly deaf.

Felix was born completely deaf. This was picked up by the newborn SWISH screening program when he was one day old.

Waterproof wonder makes Felix's summer added to Felix's page.

My life is now more normal. I am able to join in family conversation, drive again, work safely with my woodworking machinery and have meaningful and pleasant conversations with my wife.

Breaking the Sound Barrier added to Ken's page.

In January 2011 I suffered a sudden and complete hearing loss in my left ear. I already had a partial hearing loss in my right ear (due to an acoustic neuroma) so in the space of a few minutes I went from being able to cope, to total confusion with both my hearing and balance. Hearing-wise I was totally at sea.

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About CAN

Cochlear Awareness Network

The Cochlear Awareness Network is a group of Volunteers each of whom have lived deaf but have had their hearing returned with a Cochlear hearing solution.

They have chosen to be members of the Cochlear Awareness Network to tell their stories, raising awareness for these wonderful changes in their lives. All members are available to discuss their experiences.

NEW Articles

Annette speaks at Quota Internationalupdated 17/6/13

Annette: "I went to Quota International on 26th may 2013 to talk about my personal story about being deaf before being switched on with my Cochlear Implant."

"The presentation went really well. I also felt a little embarrassed that I had an emotional moment for the first time for no reason! ... but sometimes the realisation of what my cochlear has done for me is quite overpowering. "

Jeannie: "The one thing my cochlear implant cannot do for me is "hear" when I am asleep. If I am travelling alone, I always have to advise the hotel that I will not be able to hear any alarms once I have switched off my processor.

I was interested in this article because it overcomes this problem a little. I can feel my mobile phone buzzing when I leave it under the pillow slip and this warning device would probably be useful to me because it sends a message to my mobile. I think it would make a good backup as I wonder whether the hotel really would rescue me in an emergency.

I read it in the Straits Times last weekend when I was in Singapore."

read Straits Times article

School is music to Sophie's earsupdated 14-6-13

The West Australian May 15, 2013
Like most little girls, Sophie Ardagh used to adore dancing around when the credits rolled after a favourite TV show. Until she was 18 months old, it was one of many things Sophie did that led her parents to believe she was perfectly healthy and normal. Unknown to them, however, Sophie took her cues visually through watching other children and was in fact born profoundly deaf.

Sophie is now nine and her speech and hearing are practically normal, thanks to a world-leading education program driven by renowned children's charity Telethon.

Queensland children and adults awaiting a cochlear implant will have their procedure fast-tracked thanks to a 2013-2014 budget allocation announced today by Health Minister Lawrence Springborg.

Bethany's new videoPublished on 31 Mar 2013

Bethany: "I dicuss why I'm glad I was implanted at a young age - because being born deaf into a hearing family means I needed to be implanted before I was 5 to have equal speech and language skills."