Loose Women panellist Kaye Adams has been having a busy time of it. As well as holding down her day job, the television presenter is counting down the hours until she struts her way onto the Strictly dancefloor.
Meanwhile, Kaye is adjusting to some pretty big news on the health front too – she needs hearing aids for both of her ears.
Kaye shared the news with fans just recently, after she visited a Boots audiologist for a hearing test.
While she had an inkling her hearing wasn’t quite what it should be, the 59-year-old wasn’t prepared for the news that she needed not just one but two hearing aids.
“You don’t go for a test without having your suspicions, so it didn’t come completely out of the blue,” she says. “But I suppose what did come as a surprise was the advice to have two. In my head I was reconciled to needing one, not two.”
However, says Kaye, the audiologist explained the need for support for both ears was all to do with balance.
“It makes sense,” she says. “And I think getting a good understanding of it all is a really big part of accepting it.”
Kaye’s diagnosis in July concluded she was suffering with mild sensory hearing loss in both ears, with additional conductive hearing loss in her right ear. As well as a recommendation to wear two hearing aids, she has been referred to an ear, nose and throat consultant for further exploration of her conductive hearing loss.
But with so much else going on at the moment between Loose Women, Strictly Come Dancing, family life and all her other commitments, Kaye says it’s unlikely she’ll have her hearing aids fitted for a few months yet.
“Life has just become extremely busy, so realistically I think it’ll be after Strictly by the time I get them,” she says. “I’m totally reconciled to it and it’s not for any vanity reason, it’s just down to practicalities and timing.
“I actually had a fitting at my appointment where I was able to hear the difference and it was really interesting. On TV I wear an earpiece anyway and, if anything, I felt like they were more discreet.”
It’s estimated around 11 million people in the UK have hearing loss, and while as many as 6.7 million could benefit from hearing aids, only around 2 million people use them.
“I think there’s so much negativity around hearing aids that doesn’t really exist around other things like specs, for example, which are considered cool,” says Kaye. “I think hearing loss can be associated quite a lot with old age, even though there are loads of reasons you could have it at any age.
“And, actually, when you start to understand it a bit more and how your own experience can be improved, you don’t have that knee-jerk reaction against them.”
Young stars like EastEnders actress Rose Ayling-Ellis, Strictly’s first-ever deaf contestant who won the competition along with dance partner Giovanni Pernice last year – as well as Tasha Ghouri who appeared on this year’s series of Love Island wearing her cochlear implant – have made a positive impact, adds Kaye.
“Rose was on a different level,” she says. “Not only was she a phenomenal dancer but she’s a really inspirational young woman. While I’m not comparing Tasha with Rose, because Strictly was a very particular experience, Tasha was so relaxed about her cochlear implant, she was wonderful.
“I think she handled it in a fabulous way. It’s that sort of visibility that makes such a difference.”
Before her diagnosis, Kaye, who was told last year one ear was “borderline” in need of a hearing aid, had struggled with her hearing for five years.
“I’ve been aware that one side in particular was really bad for quite a while, but I suppose because the other side was compensating I thought it would all be fine,” she says. “But after a while you get to a break point.”
That point came for Kaye at a work event earlier this year when she realised she was missing out on what the rest of the room could hear.
“At this particular conference there were 200 or 300 people in the room,” she recalls.
“During the question and answer session a guy at the back asked something.
“He had a microphone, but all I heard was muffle, muffle, muffle. I looked to the panel on the stage, fully expecting them to say, ‘Can you speak up?’ but they just answered the question, which I simply hadn’t heard.
“I knew then this wasn’t practical as I do quite a lot of that type of work. That’s what galvanised me to take some action.”
While in the past Kaye has felt nervous about hearing aids, even saying last year she was “a bit embarrassed” at the prospect, she finally feels she’s ready to embrace the change.
“If it’s something that improves your ability to hear and makes your life easier more generally, then that can only be a good thing,” she says. “I know some people, particularly later in life, have found them annoying, but the audiologist explained that can happen when people have lived with poor hearing for a long time.
“At that point, I suppose the newness can seem like an irritation, but I think if you address it sooner rather than later and maintain your hearing while you can, the outcome can be really positive.
“I’ve certainly had people on Instagram who have been through the same sort of thing and say they’ve had a very positive experience, that hearing aids have made a huge difference for them. I look forward to it.”
Watch ITV ’s Loose Women weekdays from 12.30pm on ITV. To apply for tickets to be part of the live studio audience this autumn, visit: www.sroaudiences.com
