Strictly Come Dancing’s latest rising star, celebrity and former England Rugby player Ben Cohen has been given the star treatment by Stockport based Starkey Hearing.
Ben, who was fitted with Starkey hearing aids by the owner and founder of the company Bill Austin, is keeping in step and improving his musicality every week thanks to the latest invisible hearing device produced by Starkey Laboratories in Hazel Grove, and this has helped Ben on the live show when he relys on lip reading and listening to the tones.
Former England rugby player Ben Cohen has said that Elton John “changed his life” by convincing him to get a hearing aid, and said that Sir Elton does more charity work than people realise.
The 34-year-old human rights campaigner,
said he had been told by doctors that he had
lost a third of his hearing, and had tinnitus in
his mid 20s, but he refused to wear a hearing
aid because he thought they were
“cumbersome and ineffective”.
After retiring from rugby, Ben set up a charity to
tackle bullying, in particular homophobic
bullying, called The Stand Up Foundation.
Cohen said that, after he set up the
Stand Up Foundation, which seeks to
eliminate homophobia and transphobia from
professional sport, Elton John showed a keen
interest.
Ben said:
‘He called me, out of the blue, and introduced himself!
He said: “I hear you’re deaf. I love the work you’re doing and I’d love to help you. When you’re next in America I’m going to send you over to Starkey and fit you out with new state-of-the-art hearing aids. While you’re there you might as well see the head guy, the owner.” It was an amazing day.’
Ben’s message is clear, though: getting help for hearing loss can be life-changing, and there is no need to suffer in the silence – as he did for years.
Starkey Laboratories is one of the world’s largest hearing technology companies and a known-leader in the design, development and distribution of comprehensive digital listening systems. Headquartered in Minneapolis, USA, Starkey employs over 4000 staff in more than 20 countries throughout Asia, Australia, Central America, Europe, and North America. The European Head Quarters, Starkey HearingTechnologies, is located in Hazel Grove, Stockport.
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Starkey Laboratories UK headquarters are based in Stockport. Elton John is an ambassador for the Starkey Hearing Foundation. www.starkeyhearingfoundation.org