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 at the Dorset County Museum and in my professional capacity am the Chairman of the Dorset & South Wiltshire Branch of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.”