Tesco store helps improve treatment for cochlear implant children
19 January 2005
Support from the Millbrook Tesco has enabled medical charity Defeating Deafness to build new medical/treatment facilities for deaf children in Southampton.
Defeating Deafness, which also supports Southampton University research, is building a sound booth in Southampton’s new South of England Cochlear Implant Centre, expected to open in 2006.
The new sound booth will provide not only specialist facilities for profoundly deaf children in Southampton and Hampshire who have cochlear implants, but will help give deaf and hard of hearing children throughout the South of England the support and care they need to communicate in a hearing world.
The most important function of the facilities is that they will help cochlear implants to be tuned optimally for each child, so that they can hear more clearly and can overcome the debilitating effect that deafness has upon their development.
Cochlear implants are electronic devices that directly stimulate the auditory nerve, giving children that are profoundly deaf a sensation of sound.
Vivienne Michael, Chief Executive of Defeating Deafness, said "There are over 3,900 cochlear implant users in the UK - over 500 of these people could be treated by this new facility. The majority of people who have or need cochlear implants are children, aged between one and nine."
Other companies supporting this project are Wolseley (Reading), Friends Provident (Surrey), Johnson Wax Ltd (Surrey), George Wimpey (Hampshire), Pirelli (Hampshire).
