This little unit is suddenly a wonderful friend. My wife has very bad hearing and three months ago got a bad infection in one ear and her regular hearing aid in the other was slightly rough and had rubbed her ear so much she developed an ulcer where it was positioned on the side of her ear.

She could not use one on the infected side, as it filled up with smelly gunk and it was too painful to put her hearing aid in the other. The doctor already had her on antibiotics for the infection and gave her a cream to go on the other side. She was now completely deaf without either hearing aid.

The hearing aid people we went to said she needs new hearing aids but she was not due any Government subsidy for at least a year. Price without the subsidy $4000+.

A specialist ear company said they could do nothing. I thought this was hopeless. nobody was interested in finding an answer.

I went on the internet, looking for a hearing aid that can go just outside the ear, and spent several hundred dollars bringing in a range of options, with limited success . I got one of these in, not an expensive unit, around $50 US Dollars. The immediate difference - instead of a hard scratchy plug going into the external part of your ear to stop noise, this works like an inverted umbrella.

A very soft plastic plug attaches to the front of the hearing aid, When you slide it in , it expands like an umbrella to stop extraneous noise. There are 3 sizes of plug. There is an easy volume control and no batteries. Just plug in at night like your mobile phone. Lasts all day. Colour Grey/Blue My wife and I are not specialists, nor do we know or claim to know anything about hearing or hearing aids.

But my wife is happy that this new model is every bit as good as the ones costing 1000's.

You have to ask, "Why do we pay that kind of price in NZ?

We have now sold around 100 of these hearing aids!