News and Stories

Local Brisbane business owners and loving parents, Jay and Anna, found out that their beautiful little girl Harriet had a hearing loss at just one day old.   Harriet was born with Microtia and Atresia, two separate conditions that relate to the development of the outer ear and the ear canal respectively. “We were all a little surprised initially. When Harriet was born one ear looked relatively developed, but the other didn’t look very normal so we knew there was an issue. “When Harriet was diagnosed with Microtia and Atresia, we were seen by so many people, it seemed ...

Gina Preston is an ambitous 23 year old girl working in an international engineering project management firm as a multidisciplinary designer. She loves what she does and knows where she wants to go – both in career and in life. She recently bought her first home, is planning her next overseas holiday where she will travel solo across South America and loves listening to music, watching movies and playing sport. But Gina isn’t your typical 23 year old girl because she was born profoundly deaf. Gina’s hearing loss was diagnosed when she was 13 months old. A family friend dropped a ...

Dimity Dornan, Founder of Hear and Say, shares the story of when she first met the team at Thiess. "It was just over 22 years ago, but when I look back it seems like only yesterday that we received a call from a gentleman who said he had money that he was prepared to give us. That had never happened before, and it was an amazing amount of money, $50,000! The gentleman was from Thiess. He had seen a story on Hear and Say in that morning's Courier Mail, and thought he'd landed his target charity. By the meeting's end, we had secured Thiess as a partner, a partnership that continues into ...

When I reflect back on Hear and Say’s 25 years, and in particular the ten years that I have been with the organisation, I am inspired by how far we have come. In those very early days, in the 90’s, Hear and Say was taking its very first steps. We were small, we were uncertain and we were learning. We moved from toddler stage to the awkward teens in the early 00’s and started to find our own way. In our 25th year as young adults, we are still maturing however the path we have followed has led us to where we are. We are the product of years of experience, of our combined knowledge ...

It was a Queensland first when almost-one-year-old, Sage had her brand new Cochlear Nucleus 7 sound processor switched onto sound at the Hear and Say Gold Coast Centre this month! The “N7” is the world’s first cochlear implant sound processor made to be specifically compatible with iPhones for direct streaming, as well as being the smallest and lightest behind-the-ear processor currently available. Sage has had severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss in both ears from birth. At the age of two months, Sage was fitted with hearing aids, and since then has been attending ...

  Tutus, leotards and all things sparkly: that was the dress code of the day recently, with Hear and Say families treated to some very glittery, dance-filled LEAP playgroups. In Brisbane, children were led in a mini ballet class by Australian Dance Performance Institute (ADPI) ballerinas Sophie, Paris and Sienna, which included learning some all-important warm-ups, a routine to follow along to, and finally a fast-paced game of musical statues. Up on the Sunshine Coast, ballerina Sam took children into the mesmerising world of dance by teaching the excited group some simple ballet ...

Peter and I moved to Brisbane with our son Connor when I found out I was pregnant with our daughter Isabella. With a second child on the way, it was going to be tough without any family support, and family is so important to us. When she was born she was just perfect, and she still is. In hospital the newborn hearing screening test was done and that came back as inconclusive. We were convinced that the test was wrong as we have no family history of hearing loss. After about three months of testing, we realised this was serious. Isabella was diagnosed with hearing loss and was fitted with ...