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Paul Tomlinson
“My doting parents were living in Lincoln as my arrival in the world approached, but mother [and I!] were rushed back across the border into the Broad Acres prior to the actual event. Hence I am fully qualified to play for Yorkshire, even if the powers that be at Headingley have yet to take much notice."My hearing began to decline slowly in my mid teens but I was able to complete my education [and pick up degrees at Bristol and Lancaster Universities] before my hearing loss became a serious issue. I was also able to get myself established as a Chartered Engineer working for BT in various managerial roles before my hearing faded seriously from my mid 30s onwards. After going through the usual progression of increasingly powerful aids – starting with our dear old friend the Medresco – things deteriorated by my mid 40s to the point where I was profoundly deaf in one ear and had a small amount of residual hearing in the other. Fortunately by this time multi-channel cochlear implants had become a proven technology, and in late 1995 I received a Nucleus 22 CI at the Middlesex Hospital – something which revolutionised my business and social life, and for which I have ever since given daily thanks.
"A few years ago BT’s desire to reduce its headcount and my enthusiasm for early retirement coalesced to allow a mutually satisfying deal to be struck, which was followed fairly swiftly by a house move from Hertfordshire to Dorset. This is of course ideal walking country, and I also now run a small boat on Poole Harbour. Since its inception I have been on the Executive Committee of the National Cochlear Implant Users Association, and am currently one of the Trustees of the UK Council on Deafness. Most weeks I put in a day or so of voluntary work for the Prince’s Trust in Dorset, and in my professional capacity am the Chairman of the Dorset & South Wiltshire Branch of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.”
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