Joann and Dudley

“Dudley is the silver lining in my cloud”

A woman looking sad

Throughout the challenges of living with hearing loss, Joann remained a loving, dedicated grandmother. However, after a dangerous smoke alarm incident when caring for her young grandsons, she completely withdrew from the world. Then, hearing dog Dudley changed everything.

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I was first diagnosed with Otosclerosis* when I was 24. I was always the type of person who tried not to let hearing loss affect my life. But a traumatic incident in 2023 left me at rock bottom.

I used to go out to pubs and out for meals, but as my hearing deteriorated and I couldn’t hear people talking, it just became too difficult. After asking people to repeat themselves for the third or fourth time, I would just smile, pretend I’d heard and hope I was saying yes and no in the right places.

It started to cause arguments with friends, and I ended up apologising for my deafness.

Eventually, I stopped going out altogether. I started doing my food shopping at four in the morning or last thing at night, when I knew the shops would be empty. I knew at that time something had to change, so I applied to Hearing Dogs.

A woman standing next to a stone wall with a black labrador sitting at her feet by her side with a street light in the background

I ended up apologising for my deafness.

Then, the incident with the microwave happened. I was looking after my grandsons – Orson who was six and Ovie who was three. I wear the strongest hearing aids possible. Because I had the boys over, I didn’t take them out at all, and I slept with them in.

I’d previously taught Orson that if he needed to wake me up, he should do it with a ‘shake and shout’. At six o’clock that morning, I was woken up by him shaking me and shouting ‘Nana, Nana!’ I was very disorientated and couldn’t see anything. As I came round, I realised this was because the house was full of smoke. Both smoke alarms were going off and I didn’t hear them at all, even with my hearing aids in.

I started choking and told Orson to hold onto my nightie while we went to look for Ovie. When we found him downstairs, he told me, ‘I was hungry, Nana. I put my breakfast in the microwave.’ When I opened the microwave, black smoke billowed out – Ovie had put it on for 90 minutes!

I went into proper grief… I was too scared to sleep and felt permanently anxious.

I told Orson he was a hero and had saved our lives. Afterwards, I was traumatised. My grandkids were in my care and my hearing loss put all of us in life-threatening danger.

I went into proper grief. I stayed in bed for four or five days at a time. I was too scared to sleep and felt permanently anxious. I then knew for a fact that if the smoke alarm went off, I wouldn’t hear it.

Then, in January 2024, I was told I’d been matched with Dudley. I was sobbing with a cheshire cat grin from ear to ear. I was really anxious before meeting him. I knew I’d love him, but I wasn’t sure if he’d like me. But when I opened the door and he just came in wagging his tail, that was it – I was just consumed with love for him!

After all the trauma, Dudley is the silver lining in my cloud. He alerts me to the smoke alarm with a very strong nose nudge. Before I didn’t dare sleep without my hearing aids. Now, I’m getting about eight hours sleep a night. He wakes me up by sticking his nose in my face or jumping on top of me!