The Lions Club of Hastings finance and run the used hearing equipment project for the who of MD105 Britain and Ireland
Aim
Our primary aim is to collect and redistribute all spare, unwanted and surplus hearing aids, ancillary hearing equipment and serviceable batteries. In the majority of cases redistribution will be to emerging nations but cases have occurred where there is a need in developed countries.
The Story So Far
The idea of collecting old and unwanted hearing aids came during a working visit of Lion Vic Truluck to Zimbabwe in 1989. He was asked if he could find some for the Lions Club of Gweru. They were trying to help some children in a local deaf school. At that time Lion Vic was a member of the Lions Club of Cambridge. The Lions Club of Cambridge recruited the aid of local hearing consultant, Christopher Carr. He helped so much that the Club voted him a Melvin Jones Fellowship, the highest honour that Lions Clubs International can confer.
The project blossomed in East Anglia and in 1996 Lion Vic moved to Hastings. This move co-incided with Lion Vic being asked to take the project national and he became the Multiple District (MD) Project Leader and Hastings Club agreed to fund the MD Project in full.
The project has grown and grown since then.
Lion vic and his wife, bernice, were jointly awarded a certificate of recognistion by the Starkey Hearing Foundation. This recognised the global good that has come from their works. www.starkeyhearingfoundation.org/
Among the countries that we have supplied hearing equipment
Albania, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Gambia, Gaza, Goa, India, Indonesian Borneo, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Laos, Malawi, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nigeria, The Philippines, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Syria, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Uganda, The Ukraine, the former Yugoslavia, and Zimbabwe.
In 2011 we processed over 35,000 used hearing aids
Here is the diary of Lion Vic Truluck, MJF, detailing the work of the project through 2011
11 Jan. After the Christmas and New Year torpor we get underway with the receipt of two rather nice hearing aids from a rather nice place, Sunningdale in Surrey; thank you for being first.
13 Jan. We are really getting started now as a large box of hearing equipment containing 1300 hearing aids and about 200 earphones for body worn hearing aids arrive from West Park Hospital in Wolverhampton. We really need the earphones as we are short of them and cords and the body worn aids are good for children.
14 Jan. My wife and I pop over to Eastbourne on a dark and dismal day, to have lunch with a pal. On our way we also drop in on Lion Colleague John Braybrook. John hands over an incredible 1500 hearing aids that he and the Club has collected. I do not believe that we have had that many in one donation from one Lions Club, so prove me wrong someone!
20 Jan. Two packages arrive and welcome they are; one from The Mills and McKinney Practice in London and the other from Robert Smyth in Glasgow. Now I think I must send a big box up to Frankland prison as I think we must have over 1300 ready to be refurbished.
24 Jan. A lady from Pembroke Dock in South Wales sends, at great expense, a parcel containing two cordless hearing amplifiers and two hearing aids, for which we are grateful.
26 Jan. Our local hospital is having a clear out and there is a working Kamplex analyser and printer available, so hopefully it will be in Sri Lanka afore too long.
27 Jan. A mini flurry of donor’s hearing aids and batteries in three packets arrive. One from friends at Mills and McKinney in London, one from Faversham and one from my old refereeing stamping ground at Great Kingshill, Bucks; thank you all.
28 Jan. A bumper box of 1050 hearing aids arrive from the prison, which means that we should be able to meet demand while the workshops at Frankland are being moved around.
28 Jan. Dorothy from Mansfield rings to say that she is at last able to go home to Zimbabwe and take the hearing aids we sent to her. They will be presented to the Jairos Jiri Foundation.
1 Feb. The start of another month sees the analyser and printer collected last week start its journey to The Colombo South Teaching Hospital in Sri Lanka. With it will go the tympanometer donated by Dartford NHS Trust. The sea freighting will be through yet another friend Ashoka at Trico (Shipping) Ltd in Wood Green.
3 Feb. 240 hearing aids, including body worn ones arrive from “Robert of Gartnavel”. There is also a bone conductor receiver; these are becoming very rare and thus desirable.
7 Feb. We had a lovely phone call from our glamour girl Ophelia Thom at Medical Missions in the Philippines on Saturday. She is very busy around the islands and holding clinics here there and everywhere. As a result of our chat I have sent her 300 behind the ear aids and 10 body worn ones, which should keep her going a while.
14 Feb. The kindness of strangers overwhelms me at times and so it has happened today. A lady from Malton in North Yorkshire, near my childhood home, rang last week with the offer of some rather exotic items of hearing equipment. Today her parcel arrived or rather it was a box which had been used for some rather tasty “lubricant”. I am sure that Janice at ESHS will find a good home for those items which are not suitable for overseas and I will send the hearing aids.
14 Feb. Barbara Clutton of Birkenhead Lions rang last week to say that they have been sending hearing aids to South Africa for some time but their source of supply had dried up. No problem said I? Today we sent 400 hearing aids and some batteries to Lion Clive Fox of the Merriment Lions in The Cape.
15 Feb. 400 more hearing aids are off to our lovely friend and wonderful worker for the deaf, Lion Ofelia in the Philippines.
16 Feb. I happen to be at my local Conquest Hospital for one of those appointments that the elderly must have to stop bits falling off and called in to the audiology department. The result was a dozen old hearing aids and other ancillaries, so it was worth the visit.
16 Feb. The postman brings another couple of hearing aids from our friends at the Mills & McKinney Practice in London, for which we are grateful.
17 Feb. I have just had all the details from Trico Freight on the box going to Sri Lanka and the best part is that they are doing it free, how good is that? And I picked up a high powered hearing aid from the box we have in the local post office. I was sending off the Filipino hearing aids.
19 Feb. On a dank, cold miserable day we feel sorry for the postman trudging to our door. He brings cheer in a package of 53 hearing aids and body aid receiver, sent from the snowy wastes of Glasgow by Robert Smyth at Gartnavel Hospital.
23 Feb. Yet another dank dirty day but there is some goodness in it. I am sending 200 hearing aids to yet another address in South Africa and at the request of Dr Christian Bayer of the Lions Club of Frankenthal, Germany. To Richmond for Nelson Mandela Day. My tis a wondrous web we weave.
25 Feb. A lady from Ely sends us a really good hearing aid from her late husband and ma’am we are grateful.
26 Feb. Two packages burden our postman as he trudges up the path yet with a smile on his face. “I know what’s in these he cries!” He is right for it is small haul from the Lions Club of Burgess Hill and District and 97 items from Robert of Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow. When we get back we must send a box to Colin at Frankland gaol. I n the meantime thanks folks.
16 Mar. We have been away in Sri Lanka for two weeks watching a couple of games of cricket as well as dropping off an old laptop computer to a family. We also took 400 hearing aids and the ear tips donated by our friends at Puretone. Also we attended an incredible medical weekend sponsored by a Japanese government agency called JICO and run by the Lions of Wellawatte West. The Lions conducted 360 blood sugar tests with kit provided by Hastings Lions. Also the eye camp did amazing work, identifying more than 80 people needing cataract operations. They had their operations the following day by three volunteer surgeons! I digress from the hearing theme but this effort was truly awesome.
17 Mar. Just as we are waking with jetlag Robert Smyth at Gartnavel Hospital interferes. Or rather the postman does at 0740hrs with a parcel from Glasgow containing 60 hearing aids and extra useful items. I am only joking; it was a pleasure to go to the door.
19 Mar. The postman brings a hearing aid and some batteries from yet another private donor, living in West Linton, in the Scottish borders. Thank you Marion for the gift.
24 Mar. Robert Smyth and his friends in the Scottish hospital send a high value parcel of 414 hearing aids plus some ancillaries. High powered hearing aids are like manna from heaven. It is an excellent job you are doing up there lads and lasses.
24. Mar. I the aftermath of the Hastings Lions Half Marathon rated by some as the best in the world, the Bexhill-on-Sea Lions marshals hand over a small but select collection of hearing aids; thank folks.
29 March. Seven, yes seven large boxes of hearing equipment arrive from Chichester Lions via our good friend Bob Harvey of Rye Lions! Some of it is speech training instruments but there are masses of hearing aids. We will have fun sorting that lot out.
1 Apr. Colin from Frankland send s back 17 hearing aids that we were told were special and that we requested an urgent turn round.
4 Apr. The mass of hearing aids sent to us last week has distilled down to 15kg of hearing aids for Frankland prison, which must be around 5000 items. Isn’t that wonderful? And there were also some body aids and in the ear types as well.
5 Apr. Just as I am arranging for our parcel to go north to the prison, with a donated analyzer, a package from them arrives with 300 checked hearing aids. Tis all go!
5 Apr. I confess that we had a most convivial evening last night with some of our friends from the Eu Lions, who are visiting from France. Our firm friend Lion Hervé Matthieu-Bloise goes to the Ukraine each year to fit spectacles and hearing aids and we are handing over this year’s 100 aids to him. Mind you he has collected and brought 36 hearing aids to us.
5 Apr. As if to cap it all today, a lady rings to ask if we can help a lad in Albania with a couple of hearing aids? I hope we can and we can but try.
8 Apr. I have just had a super email from Peter Howell, who we sent some hearing aids to some months ago. He spent two months in Pakistan partly at a Christian hospital and fitted a total of 116 hearing aids to 76 patients. He was absolutely riveted by the stories of four girls who had not heard sound before. We had that experience in the Philippines and to see the reaction at first hand is moving. Well done Peter and thanks for the feedback.
15 Apr. 112 hearing aids and other items arrive from Team Glasgow and Lorraine at Sothern General, thanks folks.
19 Apr. Some high powered hearing aids are sent to us by Colin at Frankland Prison. They may help the Albanian lad.
19 Apr. Two boxes of hearing aid cases arrive from Gartnavel Hospital and Robert of Glasgow.
19 Apr. It is a busy day for apart from having the great grandchildren staying with us the hearing project is buzzing.
Two Kamplex hearing aid analysers are collected by the cheerful chap from Parcelforce and are on their way To All Ears Cambodia and Glyn Vaughan via his parents in Rotherham.
20 Apr. It is always most satisfying when things come together and we get a “result”. Sarah, the senior audiologist at our local hospital finds an almost perfect match for Fredi the Albanian lad, from the hearing aids sent by Colin, see above! So a package is on its way to International Community Assist, a charity in Devizes. We are chuffed!
23 Apr. On our English patron saint’s day, St George of course, we receive a parcel from Robert Smyth at Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland. It contained 285 items, mainly hearing aids and most from Elaine Cook at The Victoria Infirmary. Thank you both for the gift.
3 May. Back to normal after weddings, bank holidays and elections in Canada and two large boxes of speech training equipment are off to Islah in Leytonstone. The equipment was donated by Teesdale Lions and eventually will be used in The Sudan.
9 May. Yet another box of goodies comprising 42 hearing aids and some boxes from our favorite supplier north of the border; thanks Robert.
13 May. It may be Friday the 13th and unlucky for some but quite the opposite for us. A gift of two hearing aids and some batteries arrive from a lady in Cheshire and 13 from 91 year old Lions Club Life Member from Tonbridge, Don Furbank. Thank you both and our best wishes to you.
17 May. Yet another 56 hearing aids plus other ancillaries are received from Robert of Gartnavel. We now have nearly enough from him alone to send back north to Co Durham.
18 May. The lovely Lion Ophelia from the Philippines sends an email requesting some more supplies. So 400 hearing aids will be on their way post haste.
19 May. Another package with a donated hearing aids, this time from a lady in Bath, to whom we say thanks for thinking of us.
22 May. Fellow Hastings Lion member John Cattaway brings 5 large boxes old hearing equipment. He collected them for us from the lovely Chichester Lions at a meeting of the area Cabinet. That will occupy a few days getting them sorted and we will let you know the result.
24 May. I have just sorted the boxes we received from Chichester Lions, which adds up to about 4,120 hearing aids, other equipment and a large number of in date batteries. The boxes also produced 7 mobile phones, one low energy light bulb, several pairs of reading spectacles and a cuddly toy (yes a real cuddly toy)! We donate mobile phones to our local hospice but I think I will confiscate the light bulb as perks of the job unless anyone objects? The toy is up for grabs!
It looks as if The Royal Liverpool Hospital donated quite a few from the address on one of the boxes and also Essex County Hospital in Colchester. Lions Clubs who I can identify are Teesdale, Shirley, City of Dundee, Witherensea, Southend-on-sea and from Lion Carys Jones of Colwyn Bay in a Gaymers cider box (alas no cider). So guys and gals I reckon we have 5000 hearing aids to strain the Parcelforce chap’s back as he hefts them up to Frankland Prison.
What a splendid effort folks and thank you one and all.
24 May. Oh and let’s not forget the package that arrived from a lady whose initials are CL but who did not let me have her address. Her donation was as a result of yet another referral from the RNID.
25 May. The postman arrives at 7.40am with a strange parcel, unlike any form of hearing aid. It turns out to be a gaily decorated umbrella, a present from our Ethiopian friends via ophthalmic optician James Connolly in Glasgow. Aren’t people nice?
26 May. Alas, I am picking up my “boss” at the supermarket when a parcel arrives but not left, so I must collect it at the post office. This gives me the opportunity to post another 400 hearing aids for Bruno Druchen in South Africa on behalf of Lion Dr Christian Bayer of the Frankenthal Lions in Germany. There is a big event on later for Nelson Mandela Day.
26 May. Avid readers of this diary will remember that we sent the late Lion John Wilkinson’s hearing aid to Lion Ophelia Thom at Medical Missions in the Philippines. In with a package of pecan nuts which her father grows are some photographs and thank you notes. One is of a handsome young man, Allan April Margallo (see insert), who now has John’s hearing aid. He says in his note, “I can now hear the music of my life”. John was an organist, he would appreciate that don’t you think?
27 May. The postman brings two nearly new hearing aids from a donor in Warsash near Southampton, for which we are most grateful.
27 May. In return for the umbrella a hundred hearing aids and about 500 batteries are off to Ethiopia via James Connolly in Glasgow.
2 June. Islah has just come back from her latest successful visit to Mauritania and says she would like some more speech trainers and hearing aids please. We should be able to oblige. Oh and she sent some nice photos, one of which I will put on if I can remember how to do it from last week
6 June. The postman delivers Robert’s latest box of joys from Gartnavel Hospital, containing 66 hearing aids. Not only are there 4 digital high powered aids but a body worn one including a headband and a bone conductor (becoming rare as rocking horse whoopsies)!
6 June. Not only is Robert’s contents welcome but the box as well because I get an urgent plea from Srikanth at Southampton University for a hundred hearing aids for India. A courier is off to India on thus day so box and aids are off today by 2.00pm.
7 June. We arrive home from a day trip to find the front doorstep decorated with 4 large boxes of hearing equipment from Chichester Lions via Eastbourne Lions and our zone chairman Ian Mantel. But they made it and I must find time to sort them.
8 June. Islah will be happy. A miscellaneous box of hearing equipment is heading her way for Sudan and Mauritania. In it are a hundred and more in the ear and body aids, a Kamplex auditory trainer plus cords and earphones. There will be some more hearing aids to follow.
9 June. We have managed to sort the items received the other day and most of it is equipment of one kind and another. That which cannot be sent overseas is now donated to the East Sussex Hearing Resources Centre. The GB aids programmers, of which there are quite a few will head for Glyn in Cambodia. Among the 500 or so hearing aids are donations from Derby General and Frimley Park hospitals and Specsavers in Christchurch.
9 June. Frankland Prison comes up trumps with a monster box of checked out hearing aids. More than a thousand methinks though we have not had a minute to open the box yet. This will keep us in stock for a little while.
13 June. It has been a busy day today. Woken at 7.20 this morning by the delivery of a package from Robert in Glasgow! Do you mind Robert, we are retired!
Then I pottered over to Eastbourne to take a car full of equipment that we cannot export because it is only UK compatible. The East Sussex Hearing Resource Centre will find a good use for most of it.
The man from Parcelforce collected three boxes, two of which are for Glyn at All Ears Cambodia and contain all the GB programmers that we have together with about 200 hearing aids.
The other box is for Islah and contains 500 hearing aids and a speech trainer.
27 June. We are recently returned from a most pleasing rail journey in Spain and I am delighted to find that Mandy at our local hospital has tuned a pair of hearing aids for the young lady in Sri Lanka. They will be off there in a day or so and so many thanks Mandy.
28 June. It is a Good News Day for The Hearing Care Centre Ltd based in Ipswich is to run a campaign to collect used hearing aids at their branches and under the auspices of our friend Karen Finch and Matthew Howard, who will be. All the equipment collected will be donated to our Lions Project. We wish the scheme much success.
29 June. A fine box of hearing equipment arrives via the circuitous Lions Clubs route from our Chichester chums. When it will get sorted at this time of year when so much else is happening I know not but it will and we are grateful.
4 July. Robert Smyth in bonnie Scotland sends his donations in boxes many and various. Last week it was a clear plastic box, this, a tray or rather a series of trays. All told it is a total of 114 hearing aids, some high powered and every one is welcome. Robert also tells us that he has new sources to garner hearing equipment in his area, wondrous!
5 July. As if to cap the week’s gifts we receive from Frankland a large box of body aids and some cords which they cannot now test. These will be like manna from heaven to our African recipients, especially Islah.
7 July. We can cap it all! I return from hospital after a bit of minor “carving”, putting me on “light duties” for few days and find a Jiffy bag on the table from Harewod Barracks, BFPO15, Germany. I am touched that our message has got so far and thanks for thinking of us.
8 July. Just a minute ago the man from Parcleforce brings a large box of hearing aids sent from the prison. I knew they were coming but I am not allowed to lift for a few days so cannot tell you yet how many are in it. It looks a lot.
11 July. The hearing aids we received from Chichester last month are now sorted. They came from we know not where but with what we had, it adds up to a box of around 2,100 aids to be sent to Frankland Prison.
12 July. At our Lions club business meeting, four hearing aids are handed over from the spectacle collection; they all count.
13 July. Chitral Jayawardene, our main man at the Wellawatte west Club in Sri Lanka, send some photos of the girls who received the two hearing aids “fixed” for us by Mandy at our local hospital. I will try to put one on this sheet! I did!!
14 July. At an extremely convivial lunch with friends 1041 hearing aids are passed to me from Eastbourne Lions; fantastic!
14 July. Tis a good day all round for Team Glasgow send us 677 hearing aids of various types. Robert tells us that Dawn Saunders of Glasgow Royal Infirmary is mainly responsible. Thanks very much Dawn.
15 July. Our good friend and ally, retired audiologist Carol Gupwell, arrives with husband and red setter for a cuppa and large bowl of water! She also brings three heavy boxes crammed with hearing aids for Frankland workshop, indeed, thousands. Refreshed they depart with 200 hearing aids and 240 batteries. Carol has worked in Ecuador and will be off to Ethiopia again shortly.
16 July. Another four hearing aids arrive with some batteries from a donor in Hackney, London. As we say they all count and most of these private gifts are top class working models, so many thanks.
18 July. The poor Parcelforce chap has carted off three large boxes of hearing aids, on their way to Frankland Prison. There must be at least a couple of thousand hearing aids in them.
18 July. He also has a box for Islah of 250+ body aids and a few cords and earphones for Islah to send to the Sudan, Mauretania or indeed, the Yemen.
19 July. We receive from Robert of Glasgow a rather squashed box. It turns out to contain four private hearing aids donated by a lady in his area. They are undamaged so alls well that ends well, as that chap from Warwickshire once said.
20 July. He is non-stop that lad from Glasgow! Today 93 hearing aids arrive from Gartnavel Hospital and Robert Smyth, well done.
22 July. We are busy this month for sure as the Parcelforce chap delivers four heavy boxes of radio aids for teaching children. These have been donated by Walsall Children’s Services and will be off to Islah on Tuesday, all being well.
This is wonderful donation that will be appreciated in Africa.
22 July. Now the postman brings 11 hearing aids some cords and a couple of earphones from Germany. In fact from David Jacklin of the SSAFA GSTT Care at Bielefeld. SSAFA is a much underrated charity that does an awful lot of vital work among the Armed Services, both active and retired.
23 July. We have another package from Robert Smyth with 47 more hearing aids from Glasgow. That’s three this week.
26 July. A hundred small and child size ear tips are on their way to Colombo South Hospital in Sri Lanka, together with nigh on 100 hearing aids.
27 July. The radio aids from our Walsall friends are on their way to Islah, for her to send them on to Sudan, Mauretania or perhaps to the Yemen. Gosh we do reach some different parts of the world!
28 July. Alas, I must go to the sorting office to pick up a small package and pay excess postage. The anonymous donor sent the hearing aid in its box so it was too thick. Nonetheless, we are glad of the hearing aid enclosed.
29 July. We have had three packets from our friends in SSAFA GSTTCARE, Germany, in the last two days, filled with absolute gems. They contain 3 new body worn aids, 3 head bands with bone conductor earphones, 17 earphones and loads of cords for them. They will be in great demand.
30 July. We may be about to have a Leonard Cheshire event, as a lady has contacted us who is desperate for an obsolescent body aid and headband. The previous items may be just what she is looking for.
1 Aug. ITMA (It’s that man again) Robert Smyth with a packet of 39 mixed hearing aids but also with a headband and a bone conductor receiver; joy unbounded!
4 Aug. Three body worn hearing aids are on their way to Hitchen plus a bone conductor and headband, to the lady referred to on 30 July. We hope we have been able to help her.
5 Aug. On a routine visit to our local Conquest Hospital, they become more frequent with age, I pop in to the audiology department and am rewarded with around 50 hearing aids; thank you.
6 Aug. Uckfield Lion Graham Baldwin works for a company which is changing some medical equipment. We are the beneficiaries of three audiometers and a sound level meter. We think there will be a home for them soon, thanks.
8 Aug. Garforth and District Lions chip in with a half a dozen hearing aids and hope to send more in future; they all count.
8 Aug. Fellow Hastings Lions member John Cattaway delivers 5 boxes of hearing equipment that his beloved, Lion Wendy, collected from Chichester Lions yesterday. We will have fun sorting that lot before the week is out.
9 Aug. I have to put this letter in as I received it because there is no better justification for the Project.
“Vic at Hastings Lions
I've never been good at dancing but the contents of the Lion's packet had me skipping about! Everything, just everything I need is there, down to the dedicated connector wires. Today I have assembled the equipment and find that two of the aids are working fine and don't seem to need any adjustment for my situation. The third will need a little tweaking and the hospital will help me if I can't get it right.
If any of the on-line hearing aid suppliers had been able to supply the Danavox to me, there would of course have been a charge, although no-one provided a quotation for a gone-from-
catalogue item. Last year, the NHS supply organisation had the hearing aid listed at £85
before Danavox pulled the plug. I hope the Used Equipment Project will help others in my position and I would like to make a donation. I could make this by cheque but I would like to learn from you whether another type of pay-in would be more appropriate.
Since Danavox will not supply spare parts for the 107-2, it is hard to express the enormous relief I feel to know that my future communication needs are safeguarded and no longer dependant on company marketing policies worldwide.
Good on ya, Vic, and more power to yer arm!
Still amazed by events
Ann”
10 Aug. The result of the latest parcel received from Chichester is that around 3,300 hearing aids are off to
Frankland Prison and we have a large box of other equipment which will be donated to Eastbourne Hearing Research Centre. Thanks to all those who helped including The Oban and Lorn Lions club in Scotland and The Inner Wheel Club of Braunton. NN of Slough also contributed a massive number so a Special thanks NN!
12 Aug. A lady who lives in one of the lovely Buckinghamshire Chalfonts has sent us a couple of her late father’s hearing aids and a bunch of batteries. This is the second donation from this kind person.
15 Aug. Before we head on holiday tomorrow we manage to pack a parcel of 112 Hearing aids and some batteries for the Mc Hattie family in Prestwick. They will be sending on to a children’s home in Malawi, so we have included some body aids and a couple of bone conductor receivers.
15 Aug. The postman brings welcome packet of digital hearing aids from our friends at House of Hearing in St Andrews, Fife, so thanks Moira.
18 Aug. On our way to the Lake District, eventually, my wife and I join several others who make the Hearing Equipment a success to an open day invitation to the Sight and Sound Workshop, at Frankland Prison. It is amazing what the staff achieves for us and indeed, how enthusiastic most of the inmates are. That we turned up to take an interest is also apparently an excellent motivator. Well done Colin Salkeld, Peter Bruce and all who made the long trip so well worthwhile.
29 Aug. A message from Colin at the Prison, just opened up after our holiday, tells us that Parcel Force collected 1200 hearing aids for Michael Nolan of Soundseekers and 1 parcel of salvage for Starkeys.
9 Sep. We are having a rare quiet spell. However, a welcome pair of analogue hearing aids from a lady in Poplar, London. Actually they are her husband’s old ones! Thank you ma’am for thinking of us.
22 Sep. On our return from a visit to New England we find a box of hearing aids from Frankland Prison is awaiting our pleasure at a local post office. These are most welcome for we have messages from at least four clients requesting more hearing aids, so watch for the next few entries.
30 Sep. As a result of requests this week over 1000 hearing aids are on their way. 440 are for Islah to take to Mauretania, 200 to Malawi, 200 each to our Lions Club chums Ophelia and Chitral. I think that some will be off to Bolivia once we verify an address.
5 Oct. Oh my what a day, first our regular Parcelforce chap delivers 400 hearing aids, all checked and ready, from Frankland Sight and Sound Workshop. Then after lunch I get down to sorting hearing aids. In the last week I have picked some up from our own Hastings Lions Club and the local Conquest Hospital. Then on Monday I was delivered of three large boxes from our collection point, Chichester Lions. To cap it all Ophelia Thom in the Philippines send back a box of hearing aids for repair or salvage
Well , when sorted it all it added up to 17.5Kg or around 17,500 hearing aids to go up north for checking. Are you not all wonderful? Farnham and Aldershot hospitals sent as well as, for I believe the first time, The John Radcliffe in Oxford
Also we had donations from the North Devon Hospital in Barnstaple, as well as our good friends in Southport and Ormskirk. Other private donations came from Lincolnshire and Cannock. Then there were aids from at least three Lions clubs, Colwyn Bay, Dundee and Burgess Hill. Alas, some Clubs send the hearing aids with spectacles direct to Chichester so we may never identify them.
Two more parcel deliveries arrived during the day, over a thousand batteries donated by our kind friends at Rayovac in one and 21 bottles of red wine from my wine club in the other. I confess I did have a glass to celebrate with our dinner!
11 Oct. At our Hastings Lions club business meeting we were presented with a certificate of appreciation on behalf of the “So the World May Hear Foundation” by Dr Michael Nolan. The foundation is run under the auspices of Starkey Corporation, a world company in hearing aids. Director Michael and his colleague Steve Ellis came all the way from Manchester for this event. They also made a presentation of a framed certificate to be hung in the HQ of Lions in Birmingham.
12 Oct. Oh lawks I can’t keep up! After Michael and Steve’s welcome visit I totter away from our Conquest Hospital with 4 Auricals, donated by the audiology department. These are instruments to check digital hearing aids as well as being audiometers. There will be a big demand for these, especially from the prison.
14 Oct. It gets even better because subsequent to a chance meeting on a motorway service area with Lions District Governor Andrew Allen, he has donated his late wife’s laptop to Frank land Prison. This now means that they have the complete ability to set up another work station. Truly a marvellous week, yet again.
17 Oct. Four speech trainers plus bits and bobs are on their way to Mauritania, via Leytonstone and Islah.
18 Oct. I cry of anguish issues from Colin Salkeld at Frankland Prison. The workshop is reduced to one analyser for analogue hearing aids. Has anyone got or does anyone know about the whereabouts of, a Fonix hearing aid analyser? We would love you to donate please.
19. Oct. I have just sent two Audioscan hearing aid and ear testers to Frankland via Mike Nolan, to support the Fonix types. I am informed that these are great bits of kit.
21 Oct. On my return from a splendid day our with the RNLI at Poole, now that’s a competent organisation, I find two hearing aids awaiting me. They are from my old friend Lion Stuart Greatrix from Fleetwood. What is more they are in an ICI envelope which must be a collectable in its own right!
22 Oct. Graham Illsley is our Speech and Hearing man in the south east and has appealed for testers on our behalf. His cry is immediately responded to by my chum David Burstow in Bexhill Lions. He has located a Fonix with audiolgist Danny Hellier who owns The Bexhill Hearing Centre. He will donate it: networking is wonderful!
1 Nov. On our return from Scotland we find a package containing three hearing aids from a lady in Lancashire. They were owned by her late father Dr Jack Searson, once a member of Whalley Lions. I hope he will look down and sees the three who will wear the soon.
2 Nov. Chief man at the Sight and Sound Workshop Colin Salkeld tells me that his totals for the year so far are:
1. Up to the end of September, 8733 renovated aids sent out and1000+ in stock.
2. Soundseekers need some and will be sent 500 this week.
3. 14250 are salvage, being sent for recycling
4. Mike Nolan at The Starkey Hearing Foundation would like 10,000, egad!
4 Nov. We can report also that the appeal for hearing aid analysers is bearing fruit as two are already received and appeals for more are on the ether. We also have a volunteer to repair some of the old ones, good show!
7 Nov. Colin at Frankland has sent 500 analogue hearing aids to Sunseekers direct, which is good because it cuts out a fair bit of mileage.
11 Nov. It is the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the eleventh year and as I write it is an hour away from 11am, we do remember. When will we ever learn?
11 Nov. But there is a brighter side and after a little tardiness to which I confess I am able to send a hundred aids to my alma mater (for three weeks)! They are bound for Audiology India.
14 Nov. Peter O’Loughlin, our contact at Age UK, sends us some hearing aids and batteries, thanks Peter.
15 Nov. More than 700 checked hearing aids arrive from Frank land, just as I am replying to an email from Lion Dr Christian Bayer in Germany. He has asked for 300 aids for a Lions club in South Africa. Now that is fortune!
18 Nov. In 1935 this was an insignificant date in the history of mankind. However today we sent 300 hearing aids to Clive Fox in South Africa at the request of Christian Beyer in Germany.
18 Nov. And a lady called Clair sent a hearing aid, having seen our Project on the Web.
22 Nov. Two hearing aids arrive in two days. One from a kind lady in Chessington and the other anonymously but with a Coventry posting mark. We thank you both.
24 Nov. Robinson Hearing Services in Epsom donate us 8 highly desirable Phonak hearing aids; many thanks.
28 Nov. Our man from Parcelforce has just picked up the four Auricals and they are off to Glyn at All Ears Cambodia, via Rotherham of course! He also picked up 400 hearing aids for Islah plus two speech trainers, some microphones and headsets. She is off to Sudan next week again.
28 Nov. I have been up to see Mandy at the Conquest Hospital and collected hearing aids for special hard of hearing patients in Morocco, Albania and Christina in Romania. So it is off to the post office to speed them on their way.
1 Dec. We start the month off very well with donations of modern hearing aids from a lady called Carolyn and Sandra Brook-Robinson in Epsom. Thank you both very much.
2 Dec. Some batteries and two hearing aids are received from two anonymous donors arrive in the post.
2 Dec. Colin of Frankland has sent 500 hearing aids to All Ears Cambodia and 200 to Soundseekers. At the end of the month we will know the total for the year; another record methinks!
14 Dec. A large heavy box is delivered from Frankland containing many body aids. We will send them on to The Starkey hearing Foundation and Soundseekers methinks.
15 Dec. Tis the season for giving and receiving! We have been given several hearing aids in three packets from various parts of the country, North Hykeham in Lincolnshire, Chepstow in Monmouthshire and Glastonbury in Somerset. We are delighted to receive them.
21 Dec. Michael Nolan emails to say that he has received the 1000+ body worn/pocket hearing aids. He got all excited when he saw that some of them were Medresco ones; apparently museum items. I dunno, I am just an old, retired, failed airframe fitter!
23 Dec. Colin at Frankland has sent us through the 2011 figures. They have renovated and dispatched 11,106 hearing aids to charities. I would say that half of these will have been sent to us in the Lions Project. 24,048 salvage aids have been despatched to Starkeys & the Hearing Foundation for recycling and scrap. Which means that a total of 350000 hearing aids have been collected and processed. I think this is again a record this year, very well done.
30 Dec. Indeed, we are not. Edwina from Northern Ireland rings to ask for some hearing aids and batteries for a church visit to Burkina Faso. After explaining the pitfalls of fitting and maintaining hearing aids we agree on 200 aids and 300 batteries as a first delivery. The Postman is now on his way with them. And Bolivia and Diane Bellomy is calling for more as well.
And we are not finished!
To all that contributed to this we offer our simple thanks.
Vic Truluck MJF, Project Leader Used hearing Equipment, 24 Fearon Road, Hastings, TN34 2DL, ENGLAND.
Telephone: 01424 435 564 or +44 1424 435 564 if overseas
E-mail: verbic@hastingslions.org.uk
Remember. If you have hearing equipment to donate, and you are in the UK, you can send it FREE. Just pack it up, address it to Chichester Lions Club, c/o Apuldram Centre, Apuldram Lane South, CHICHESTER, PO20 7PE. Then ring
Parcelforce on 0844 800 4466; follow the instructions for those with a contract. Then quote Contract R233259, tell them it is for Lions Clubs International and they will come and pick the package up. We suggest that you put a note inside saying who you are and when Chichester sends the item along to Hastings, we will be able to acknowledge receipt. It is also a good idea to put “Hearing equipment for Hastings” on the outside. If it is a small item you may wish to send it direct our address in Hastings, as above.
