Meet Lily Davidson

Nine-year-old agony aunt for other deaf children By Mum Carolyn Lily was born premature and given auto toxic medication until she was eight months old, both of which may have caused her deafness, although well never know for sure. As this was in the days before compulsory neonatal screening, Lily wasn`t discovered to be deaf until she had a routine test at eight months. She was given hearing aids but they didn`t produce any significant benefit, so she had a cochlear implant fitted shortly before her third birthday. Lily had started at Hamilton School for the Deaf but the implant allowed her to attend a Montessori school for hearing children and she has done so well academically that she is now at the biggest private school in the UK, where she is top of her class for language, with a reading age of 11, and words like `rampaging` in her vocabulary! At the end of 2005 the Scottish Executive paid for Lily to have a second implant fitted to help her cut out background noise and focus on specific sounds. Also, it�s important for Lily to locate where traffic sounds are coming from - something which is impossible with one implant but can be achieved with two. Lily was very keen to have the second implant. On our way to the switch on she said, "I am so excited Mummy. I want to hear with two ears. I don`t want to just hear with one". I wish I could have recorded that simple statement and played it to all the authorities that fund children`s implants. Lily has got on so well with her new implant that she has become an agony aunt writing letters of encouragement to other children considering cochlear implants. I have documented her progress on www.thedeafblog.co.uk.