Shortly after I had my first Cochlear processor connected to its implant and switched on,
I left the Royal Eye+Ear hospital, in Melbourne, Australia and decided to have my lunch
on a park bench (Treasury Gardens near Parliament House). When a blackbird started
singing just above me, it was so beautifully reproduced that I was hooked.

My emotions ran so high that a tear or three welled up in my eyes and rolled down my
cheeks. Yes, I know, when you have good, natural hearing, you tend to take such a simple
pleasure for granted. But I had been made to do without this beautiful, simple, aural
pleasure for a number of years so it affected me profoundly.