'I lost my hearing overnight in my 30s - and nobody knows why'

Lauren Staniforth was a busy and healthy mum of two when she lost her hearing overnight.

The 35-year-old from Sheffield woke up one morning in 2024 unable to hear in one ear, and since last October has been deaf in both.

Doctors have been unable to explain why she is unable to hear, having ruled out infections such as meningitis, and her life has changed completely.

She struggles to converse with her five-year-old son and said she has lost her "confidence and independence". She now relies on lip reading and her only hope of restoring her hearing is a cochlear implant.

Lauren's condition has led to her husband Brin, 36, deciding to run 10km every day this month to raise money for the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID). They are hoping to donate at least £1,000 to the charity.

Lauren, a business manager for the South Yorkshire Eating Disorders Association, initially believed she had an ear infection and went to her GP, who referred her to A&E for suspected meningitis.

Yet more than two years later she still does not have a diagnosis or know if her hearing could ever return.

"I'm struggling every day with speech. I know someone's talking, but it sounds like an out of tune radio - everyone sounds fuzzy."

Her complete loss of hearing happened just two months before her wedding to Brin, and although she was prescribed steroid treatment, she could not listen to the speeches or music at the ceremony.

"It was emotional turmoil, waking up thinking today's the day it could be gone forever," she said.

To speak to her youngest son, she needs to look directly at him and read his lips.

"He'll cry because he thinks I'm ignoring him, but I genuinely have no idea what he's saying. It's the little things I miss the most, we walk into school and I can't just have a conversation with him."

A cochlear implant would convert sounds to electrical impulses and send them directly to Lauren's brain, bypassing her damaged ears.

"I miss my confidence and my independence, this kind of becomes your personality because you have to tell everyone you're deaf.

"The world is not accessible for us - even in the NHS and hospitals - and nothing ever changes."

Brin added that the RNID had supported the couple, who live in Frecheville, during Lauren's hearing loss journey.

"Lauren's really selfless, she sees this as her struggle and what she's gone through, but she doesn't want anyone else to go through it - I wanted to do it for her and the RNID."

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