A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a member of the SEE HEAR team. For those who don’t know, SEE HEAR is a magazine programme which covers all aspects of Deaf and Hard of Hearing current news and affairs. It has been running now for nearly 30 years. I know this because for some reason the fact that the first SEE HEAR programme was aired just days after I was born, has stuck in my head as a random piece of stored away information in the back of my brain!

So fancy that, I wonder if they will mark their 30th birthday? I actually remember meeting Clive Mason once at a playscheme for Deaf children during my school summer holidays when I was about 9 or 10 and I remember him being quite the celebrity. I remember we went swimming and I got a little out of my depth and he rescued me. What a memory to have!

Anyway, to the point – SEE HEAR contacted me as they were interested in my Cochlear Implant story. They came to my house and filmed me in the kitchen (cue me putting the washing up away asap) rambling away hoping hard I was making sense. A lot of what I say won’t be news to my regular readers, but it might be interesting to see me talk about it in person anyway. The show will cover all aspects of the CI, including positive stories and I imagine those at the start and possibly end, of their CI journey.

The episode will be aired at 1pm on 6th April 2011. I appreciate a lot of people will be at work at the time, but it will be available to view on iplayer afterwards as well. Or you could set your player to record!

I was very nervous being filmed, and I will be very nervous when it airs. Not least because I will not see the show before it’s shown on TV. I’m quite nervous about my signing – which I know is ridiculous. The problem is, when I’m nervous, my signing goes to pot (as does my spoken word) and I am hoping hard, I am understood well.

I would also like to point out to any potential viewers of the programme that I have lost weight since it was filmed… if I look like a bloated whale, I certainly don’t look as much like one now as I did Winking smile  and anyway, doesn’t the camera add on 10lbs?

In all seriousness, I hope you will watch it and not just to see my small part in it, but to listen in on other people’s experience of the CI as well. I am hoping as a whole, that the programme reflects every angle of the CI journey that people take. I have confidence they will actually, after having met the team who I have nothing but praise for after being looked after so well.

There you go – beans have been spilt. Let me know what you think!