I am not normally one to keep up with the times when it comes to gadgets. I made that mistake once, paying thousands and thousands of pounds for a plasma television just before everybody decided LCDs were better and a quarter of the price. Never again I said to myself.

Mind you, when it comes to little Alice, I would happily bankrupt myself if I thought it would help.

By a twist of fate – probably partly our fault for pushing so hard to get Alice’s implant date brought forward – about 2 months after her surgery, Cochlear, the makers of Alice’s implant, released their new implant and processor – the dynamically named ‘Nucleus 5’. After 5 years of the original Nucleus 24, Cochlear had refined a lot of the teething problems with the old unit and, most importantly, made it smaller – about half the size in total.

Alice is ‘entitled’ (I use that word very carefully) to a new processor, funded by the NHS, about every 5 years. 5 years is a long time to wait.

I had the luck to see and handle one of the new processors last week when Alice was at St. George’s for a new map. Within minutes I was on the phone to Alice’s Mummy saying ‘ we need to find £6,000’. Find it we did – in no small part through the generosity of Papa and Grandma. So in about two weeks time, Alice will have a new, shiny, smaller, better gadget. Nothing but the best. Fortunately, the new processor is fully compatible with Alice’s implant, so no need for more surgery – that would be a step too far.

Managing to convince Alice’s Mummy to part with £6,000 we don’t have was a little tricky. That said, as soon as I pointed out that it would mean Alice would have a spare speech processor, should Mummy  ever choose to lose it again, she was sold.

All very exciting

So here we are. A year on from the day we found out that little Alice couldn’t hear.

What has changed?

Well little Alice isn’t so little any more, but more to the point, our eyes have been opened and we are tired – very tired.

That said, the journey we have been on has been incredible, and the people we have met along the way have been an inspiration.

If you had told me 366 days ago that the past year would have panned out the way it has, I would have laughed in your face. Out perfect little daughter was not as she seemed – perfect nonetheless, but with a problem we neither contemplated nor understood. Alice’s dear Granny was still with us, telling us that there was nothing to worry about and life – well life was just ordinary.

And here we are now. Back at our flat in Devon – the same flat we retreated to last year when we first found out about Alice’s deafness, yet in a lot of ways I wouldn’t change what has happened for the world. In a perverse sense, whilst I would give Alice the new batteries she needs for her ears tomorrow and would never wish this upon anyone, I feel enriched by the experience – dare I say it, a better person for it.

And Alice…..well Alice is all the more special and that is something we can never take away from her. She is a wonder. A phenomenal young lady who proves every second of every day that whatever life throws at her, she will continue to stun us all.

Darling Alice. If one day you read this, I love you more than you will ever know and I hope one day you forgive us for the way this all panned out.