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Wendy Evans from Cullompton in Devon spent the last forty years struggling with single sided hearing loss until she had a life changing Baha - a bone conduction hearing implant operation this time last year.

Not only has her Baha made Wendy realise just how much she had been missing out on before, it has inspired her to help launch a Baha Users Support Group, in conjunction with The Royal Devon and Exeter Foundation Trust.

As a child Wendy suffered a ruptured tympanic membrane and a cyst in her right ear, which left her unable to hear on that side. An operation 15 years ago for the removal of the cysts and a reconstruction of the bones in the middle ear failed to improve matters and Wendy just soldiered on being deaf in one ear.

She did try conventional hearing aids, but as her problem was conductive hearing loss, they were not a great deal of help and she continued having to turn her 'good' ear towards the sounds that she wanted to hear.

Despite working as a manager in the NHS since 1979, Wendy only discovered the Baha system during a routine appointment with Mr G Weiner, ENT Consultant at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, in December 2005.

He explained that Bahas differ from conventional hearing aids as they are not located within the ear but are attached to an implant in the skull directly behind the ear.

Pioneered in 1987, the Baha system uses the patient's skull to transfer sound from their deaf side to the functioning cochlea in the hearing ear. The device has three main parts - a small titanium implant which is placed in the bone of the skull, a speech processor and supporting filler which links the implant and processor. The speech processor uses a microphone to pick up sounds on the non-hearing side and then turns them into sound waves which are transmitted through the skull to the functioning ear. This gives the person the sensation of 'hearing' from their deaf side. Baha surgery is often carried out under local or general anaesthetic.

Wendy opted to have the procedure without a general anaesthetic. Although the ENT team at the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital was fantastic Wendy wished that she had been able to talk to someone else who had actually been through the procedure before her and could have helped prepare her and encourage her through the initial discomfort.

Now Wendy is delighted to have persevered: "I work as a Practice Manager Lead for the NHS Alliance and as strategic Manager for the College Surgery Partnership, which means liaising with a team of ten doctors, spread over four sites, and with frequent meetings and conferences to address in my national lead role. This has become so much easier with the Baha."

"Now my colleagues take it for granted that I can hear as well as they can and when I meet people for the first time they have no idea that I'm partially deaf - I've grown my hair long to cover the speech processor. When people used to spot my hearing aid they would sometimes treat me differently, now I no longer experience that prejudice."

On 14th March, Wendy and another Devonshire Baha user, Jack Carter, helped to launch a users support group, which met for the first time at the Post Graduate Education Centre, Royal Devon and Exeter hospital at 5pm.

The group is patient led and intended for Baha users, or potential users, to discuss any problems or concerns they may have and offer any advice they might like to share. As Wendy says: "My Baha has changed my life in a way I hadn't envisaged. I feel it is my mission to spread the good word and it is great to hear other people's experiences and to help new users who might feel it is daunting."

The launch was sponsored by Cochlear UK, the Baha manufacturer, who attended the evening along with the ENT consultants, Baha nurse, audiologists and patient group organisers to answer any queries.

Mr G Weiner, ENT Consultant at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, says: "Bahas are here to stay, and are mainly managed by the users themselves. However much I talk about it, I haven't got one. Potential users need to hear it from the horse's mouth"

www.cochlear.co.uk