Alden & Pam's Story of Hearing Loss

Losing my hearing took a lot from me...but the one thing that made me still feel alive, like life was still worth living through this silent bubble has been my mountain biking.

I first noticed that my hearing was beginning to go when I worked at the Tokoroa mill 20 years ago. I had been wearing hearing protection...usually ear plugs and ear muffs...but I suppose the constant noise exposure took a toll.

It didn't really affect me too much back then as I was still able to do the things I always did. It was not until I was 60 that I really began to notice a change...

I have always been a keen hunter and enjoyed stalking deer, and in this neck of the woods it is sika deer that you find in the forest.

Sika deer squeal rather than roar like the red deer, so you need keen hearing to locate them. My ability to hear them grew harder as time passed...the squeal became more of a squeak, then it got to the point where I could not hear it at all. There was not much point in hunting after that!

Pam was so supportive through it all, and still is. She is my rock. As my hearing started to go more and more, I relied more heavily on her to communicate for me. Not only that, as my hearing deteriorated I found it too dangerous to drive, so Pam took over and became my personal chauffeur...not out of choice but necessity!

We used to be a social couple too. Pam is involved in the amateur dramatics society here and I always enjoyed going along and watching her productions. As time went on and my hearing got worse, I found it so hard to hear what was going on; people also drew away from me as they found it too hard to be around me. It really was very lonely and isolating a lot of the time.

There was a time I struggled to cope with what was going on, and then my son Phil asked me to join him in a mountain biking trip. He has his own bike shop in Palmerston North and his whole family rides. It was 2007, I was 71, had next to no hearing left and I was in!

I needed something to make me feel alive again. I loved being in amongst the forest hunting and mountain biking gave me access to the forest again and the thrill of adventure.

It came with serious challenges though. I could not hear other riders coming from behind me in a race...needless to say a few choice words were yelled in my direction a few times! The races were full on...50 kms on a mountain bike through some pretty tough and hairy terrain. I had to rely on the feel of the bike a lot, for if something went a miss, I couldn't hear the bike straining, rubbing or creaking like they do. You learn to rely on your other senses a lot really.

I never thought I would feel the thrill of the forest in such a way, not at my age and not with such profound hearing loss. Mountain biking gave me the ability to cope through the social isolation I felt, and I have ridden every year since then in the Karapito and N-duro bike series.

Well, I have missed this year. After battling along with my hearing loss for so long I eventually got a place on the Cochlear Implant waiting list and I got the call at the start of 2011- so I missed the start of the bike series. It's been worth it though!!

The thing that Pam and I have appreciated the most about the whole thing is we can now take a walk and talk together at the same time. For so long we had to take walks in silence and now we can chat as we go. It is the simple pleasures in life that many take for granted when they have sound.

My next challenge of course is to do the Karapoti with hearing! I've already bought my buffhead gear to cover the processor and invested in a bigger helmet-there'll be no holding me back now!