I was born in 1943. and have struggled with and against against deafness ever since. As far as we know this unhappy event started on the afternoon of 24th September 1944 when I was in my pram with mum and dad in south east London. A German V1 rocket landed very close by and killed a lot of people, mum was convinced it was this day, this moment that damaged my ears. guys hospital have confirmed irreversible damage to the ear/brain nervous system by a loud explosions

We decided to return to live in the UK for my sons education and it was soon apparent that that I was in trouble, communications wise. In all those years since leaving the UK, the mobile phone age was upon us, I was probably the only person you know who didn't have one, didn't use one, couldnt use one.!

no one can bother with letters or emails now

Upon returning I was faced with a nightmare situation with every day commutations with , banks, utility companies, local government, UK tax, pensions, doctors,UK immigration for Mai, my Thai wife.. Even for a hearing person, returning to the uk after many years away, and getting back in the system is hard to do.

Just about everyone only wanted to phone me. When receiving a letter from the above mentioned people, they would state “ Please call this number”. Of course I could not. Mai could not do it, as her English still not good enough for difficult problems. After 2 years back, nothing has improved, everyone still asks me to phone, call. Its caused me a lot of stress. One terrible example was with a water bill, and after 11 letters, still un resolved, and still asking me to call,well I will see them in court ..We are pretty much settled but I would like to solve the communications problem with a hi tech solution. I need a very powerful computer with very fast broad band. I need special software that converts speech to subtitles live,in real time., but I of course would speak back. I need a powerful smart phone, iPad with the same set up. We are on limited means and still supporting our twin daughters at university in Thailand.

I want to raise about £1600 for this equipment and software for myself that will allow me to communicate in this mobile phone age.People may ask why not Skype? why not line video calls,? well even with the very best internet connection live video has a delay, of half to one second, making lip reading impossible, unless you were deaf and a lip reader you would never realize that

Thank you

pip