A TAVISTOCK women has used her disadvantages to help others, becoming a lipreading teacher for Devon and Cornwall.

Deafened grandmother and tinnitus sufferer Vivienne Fisher is delighted to have turned her hearing loss into something far more positive, having completed her training at City Lit in London, to teach adults lipreading.

Greatly in demand, she will be joining the very small handful of similarly qualified teachers across Devon and Cornwall, to teach how to manage hearing loss and lipreading skills.

Exited about her new classes across Devon and Cornwall, Viv said: 'It has been a long old journey but it is fantastic to have a job where being deaf is definitely an asset.'

Viv was first aware of her complex tinnitus when she was eight years old.

She was convalescing in bed after a severe bout of flu and thought that the myriad of strange noises like cogs grating around, whistles of steam, electrical whining, white noise and static was her brain working. Her hearing loss probably dates from about the same time although it wasn't picked up until much later.

It was some years on before a chance remark that she needed to fetch her glasses to see what someone was saying that she realised that she ought to see about some hearing aids.

Sadly, although a big help, hearing aids don't work quite so magically as glasses and Viv found it more and more difficult to attend social events or, despite a degree, find a job where being deaf was not difficult or embarrassing.

Eventually, determined to turn her life around, Viv joined Action on Hearing Loss as a volunteer information officer and finally learned about lipreading classes — although it took an eventual house move to be near enough to attend one.

Viv said: 'Lipreading classes gave me the confidence I so badly needed.

'Unless you have a hearing loss yourself it is hard to understand the misery of a night out where you cannot hear what is being said.

'The theatre or cinema become a game of guess work and I once sat through a whole comedian's show without hearing a single one of his jokes.

'It is so easy to become isolated and depressed. Now, my natural lipreading skills have improved and I have a much better understanding of how to help myself.

'So as a newly qualified lipreading teacher, I have bucket loads of enthusiasm to pass these skills on to some of the other estimated 10-million people in this country who have some form of hearing loss.'

Viv will be talking about lipreading to the Hear Me Now Club for people with hearing loss in Tavistock at the Anchorage Centre today (Thursday).

In Devon Viv has classes run by the WEA in Newton Abbot, Paignton and Plymouth, and in Cornwall, Truro and Falmouth.

To find out more, or to enrol in the Devon classes visit http://www.wea.org.uk">www.wea.org.uk or call 0845 582758.

Anyone with a hearing loss will attract a subsidised rate, and it is free for those in receipt of certain benefits.