The Moment This Woman Heard A Human Voice For The First Time, Aged 39

They are seven simple words we all take for granted. But as Joanne Milne heard her doctor recite the days of the week, she was overwhelmed with emotion, fighting back tears and gasping to catch her breath. Until that moment the 40-year-old’s world had been silent. Born with the rare condition Usher Syndrome, Ms Milne has been deaf since birth and in her mid-20s the condition claimed her sight.

But last month Ms Milne underwent a life-changing operation to fit cochlear implants. Following the procedure, she faced a four-week wait for medics to switch on the implants to see if the operation had been a success. Hearing for first time, a video capturing the switch-on shows Ms Milne breaking down as she tells her doctor her own voice sounds ‘very, very strange’, before adding: ‘Wow, it is absolutely amazing.’ The doctor tells the 40-year-old, from Gateshead: ‘It is a big, big, life-changing day.