A TAUNTON woman who was born partially deaf is launching a new product to challenge the stigma associated with wearing hearing aids.

Kate Cross, an independent hearing aid audiologist based at Nuffield Health Hospital, lost her hearing when her mother contracted German Measles.

Her line of innovative hearing aid accessories, hearrings, will be launched next month.

She said: “I've been wearing hearing aids since I was 10 years old and decided I wanted to be an audiologist from that point.

“Hearrings are designed to be a fashion statement. Many hearing aids can be like a clunky beige banana. Spectacles were once viewed as geeky and are now worn with pride by famous faces including Elton John, Gok Wan and Jennifer Aniston.

“Hearrings can customise an existing hearing aid and they can be interchanged with different colours to match an outfit. It will probably be for women mainly first but we are also looking at setting up a line for children and eventually even for men.

“I was asked to give a presentation at a consortium for hearing aid audiologists on people's perceptions of hearing aids so I designed them really as a gimmick. Afterwards people asked me if they can get the accessories.”

She added: “I wear hearrings but I sometimes also wear hearing aids which are quite discrete, it's like people wearing contact lenses but also wearing glasses so they can make a statement.”