- Hearing
Former farmer Desmond gave his hearing aids a pretty good run. He relied on them for more than 30 years until they just no longer worked for him in his right ear.
A year ago, aged 93, he received a cochlear implant, and he has a message to share: “If you are thinking about making your mind up about sorting out your hearing loss – just do something about it”.
Des, from Inverell in northern NSW, was referred to our cochlear implant program by his regular audiologist Sharon, who continues to help him manage his remaining hearing aid. Now, he also has a NextSense audiologist, Shannon, from our Toowoomba Centre, who works with him on his cochlear implant rehabilitation.
“I have a woman in both ears now,” he laughs.
“I decided to go ahead with the implant because I had no hearing left in my right ear – so I had nothing to lose and I wasn’t nervous about it.”
Anyone considering a cochlear implant should go through an assessment to see if an implant will be right for them. Des was found to be a good candidate for the surgery, and age was not a barrier for him.
“My friends have really noticed a difference,’ he says.
— DesI go to Probus Club and now I can hear in the meetings. Our president says now I can hear too much! I’m back to joining in – it’s good to be part of everything.
Probus Club is just the start. Des is still driving, and he volunteers weekly at the community shed, the local op shop, or the Inverell Pioneer Village. He thrives on being active in his community and sharing his woodworking skills with others. A self-taught woodworker, his precise and beautiful horses, buggies, bullock teams and furniture items made from recycled timber are something to see.
One thing’s for sure, he has no plans to slow down any time soon. And he’s delighted that he can now hear his grandchildren. “A couple of them speak a thousand words a minute” so he has to be on his game.
— DesI can even hear my hair moving now. I still have trouble hearing in crowds but in general I am no longer missing out on things.
Des is no stranger to giving things a go, so learning how to hear again was something that came naturally. He practised his listening through audiobooks and the TV and things began to fall into place.
It hadn’t been easy for a long time though. Des had struggled with hearing from a very young age. When he was just five or six, and helping out on his father’s farm, he was exposed to a wide range of industrial noise.
“My father had to do his own blacksmithing on the farm, so there was the noise of the blowers and the striking of the anvil in the forges. Then, later I was around tractors and all the other farm noises.”
As an adult, Des took up farming too, running a 3,500-acre sheep and cattle farm north of Inverell.
Occupational noise is a known issue for farmers. Research shows that 65 per cent of Australian farmers have a measurable hearing loss, compared to 22-27 per cent of the general population.1
This makes access to services in rural and regional Australia critically important. Des was able to receive his surgery through our cochlear implant service in Port Macquarie, but his ongoing rehabilitation is a little closer in Toowoomba, which is a four-hour drive.
His daughter Kerie says the family really appreciates the sessions with NextSense audiologist Shannon, who she says is “marvelous” and has made everything easy to follow and understand.
“The week dad got switched on we had to drive to Toowoomba. There has always been an on and off rattle in the car – mum and I hear it all the time and dad has never said anything about it. On the way home from the appointment he said can you pull over there’s a rattle in the car and I have to fix it. Now he is going to hear everything we say!”
Des was featured in the Armidale Express on 11 July 2025. Read his story (paywall).