Cambridge Hearing Trust

About us

The Cambridge Hearing Trust (CHT) is a unique group of deaf people and healthcare professionals supporting the deaf community and the auditory implant provision in Cambridgeshire. CHT is a registered charity in England and Wales (no. 1002088) since 1990. 

Our history

Any history of the Emmeline Centre or indeed of Cambridge Hearing Trust would be incomplete without the contributions of the two people closely involved from the beginning of cochlear implant surgery at Addenbrooke's hospital, namely Roger Gray and Ivy Court, both also founding Trustees of Cambridge Hearing Trust. Without their drive and commitment, it is doubtful if either aspect would have advanced this far. 

 

This short history has been written with assistance from then and other staff of the Emmeline Centre, both past and present. 

 

The development of the Emmeline Centre was made possible by a legacy of £ 1 Million from Miss Emmeline Waley Cohen, a patient of the lip-reading and rehabilitation group run by Ivy. Before Miss Waley Cohen's most generous gift, and following taking part in a 3-year funded government evaluation of adult implants, the funding of Cochlear implantation had initially been "hand-to-mouth" with patients and their relatives being closely involved in fundraising. The need for this led to the formation of the Cambridge Hearing Trust, registered as a charity in July 1990, which oversaw the fundraising and distribution of such funds for the benefit of profoundly deaf people. 

 

With the commencement of NHS funding, the frequency of implantation increased, with the 50th such surgery having taken place in 1994, the year Emmeline Waley Cohen died. 

 

By this time, it had become apparent that, with the increased numbers of implants being offered and, more importantly, the need for maintenance and rehabilitation, the existing facilities were inadequate to allow the project to develop as quickly as needed. 

 

The arrival of Emmeline Walley Cohen's legacy opened the doors to what Cambridge Hearing Trust had been seeking since incorporation, specific premises where the non-surgical work involved with cochlear implants i.e. counselling, fitting and rehabilitation could take place under one roof. Innitially, a search was launched for a separate property, dubbed a "Hearing House". Unfortunately, whilst a suitable property was found, permission to use it was refused by the hospital authorities. 

 

Fortunately, in 1998, an area of the Addenrbooke's site, previously occupied by the Psychotherapy, was identified; the hospital authorities relocated that department thus freeing up adequate space for the conversion into a suitable clinic. The funds for the Psychotherapy's relocation and the conversion into suitable premises came from half of Miss Waley Cochen's legacy.

 

The fitting out of the clinic utilising some £280,000 of the funds was completed in 2000, the department was officially opened in March of that year by Mr John Ballantyne FRCS and formally named the Emmeline Centre. The number of staff employed by the centre at this time was 7. 

 

In the decades since the opening, the department has gone from strength to strength with its work being supported by CHT to the extent of grants for research, rehabilitation and equipment amounting to £325,000 and salary payments totalling £430,000 to date. The total number of patients treated with cochlear implants is now over 2,000.

 

The ever-increasing need for space has resulted in the conversion of an area adjoining the Emmeline Centre to provide the necessary equipment for testing. This development having been recently completed at a cost in excess of one million pounds funded jointly by the hospital together with commercial bodies and the Cambridge Hearing Trust, the latter as a result of another legacy, this time from Mr&Mrs Townsend.   

 

The "new" Emmeline Centre is now again fit for purpose and provides a lasting monument to the generosity of Miss Waley Cohen and the continuing hard work and commitment of the staff working there, now numbering more than 50 clinicians.