[Transcript]

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These have cost me £3000 every year for the last 12 years.

I mean, I could have put a deposit down on a house with that kind of money.

I both love them and I hate them.

They’re hearing aids and they have transformed my social confidence - being able to hear what people are saying and not just nodding politely when someone talks to me and praying it wasn’t a question.

They’re completely invisible. So most people don’t even know that I wear hearing aids.

But this is also the reason I hate them.

Like, clearly I’m embarrassed to be seen wearing hearing aids. And I’m not the only one - 80% of people who need hearing aids don’t wear them.

But the solution to the embarrassment isn’t invisible hearing aids.

It’s the idea of what hearing technology is that needs to change.

We’ve seen this work with glasses.

They used to be stigmatised and avoided too, but they’re not anymore, and it wasn’t invisible contact lenses that solved the problem.

Glasses are popular today because they changed the idea of eyewear, it’s more than just medical product that enhances your vision, it enhances you, it’s an accessory- they’re designed to look good. Only 20% of people choose invisible contacts.

That’s what needs to happen for hearing aids in order to make this incredible technology something that people will use.

So that’s what I’m working on with Overtone.

Oh and they’re not gonna cost £3000.

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