Alan Titchmarsh reveals impact of hearing loss as he hits out at ‘stigma’-Ruth Lawes-Entertainment – Metro

Alan Titchmarsh wants to raise awareness around hearing loss (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)

Alan Titchmarsh has said he wants to end the stigma around using hearing aids and urged more people to ‘get real’ about hearing loss.

The TV star and gardener, 75, praised the likes of Tasha Ghouri, who is deaf and uses a cochlear implant, on Strictly Come Dancing for being a role model.

Alan said he also uses ‘invisible’ hearing aids but ‘does not mind people knowing’ because he wants more openness and transparency around hearing loss.

‘More folks [should] stand up and say, oh for goodness sake, get real, it happens as you get a bit older,’ the former Ground Force presenter explained.

Around 42% of people aged over 50 and 71% over 70 have hearing loss, with estimates suggesting that over 13 million, or one in five of the population, will have hearing loss by 2035, according to the NHS.

Speaking about his experience with hearing loss, Alan told Jane Garvey and Fi Glover on Times Radio: ‘There’s such a stigma attached to them isn’t there, you know old folk with hearing aids. But I know several young people who are having to wear hearing aids and feel absolutely devastated by it.

The Ground Force star urged more people to ‘get real’ about wearing hearing aids (Picture: Tony Sapiano/Shutterstock)

Alan said there was still as stigma around hearing loss (Picture: Channel 5)

‘I think people like Tasha Ghouri on Strictly Come Dancing are such beacons of hope and just get on with it. We all have problems and as you get older, particularly with men, it’s your upper register that seems to go.

‘So I do wear hearing aids, particularly for television, and it just crisps things up. They’re invisible, they’re behind my ears. But I don’t mind people knowing because I think the more folks stand up and say, oh for goodness sake, get real, it happens as you get a bit older.

‘You know I’m not stone deaf, my family don’t have to shout. They do tell me I hear more now than I used to hear before.’

Earlier this month, Alan recounted a horrific ordeal when he was a child during which he was tied to a chair and set alight. He said he was ‘lucky to be alive.’

Alan praised Tasha for being a ‘beacon of hope’ on Strictly (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)

The incident happened while Alan was pretending to be a captured cowboy while playing with his friend Mickey in his youth.

However, the fun and games took a turn when the boys got real flames involved in their make-believe world.

Mickey had tied Alan’s feet to the legs of a chair and bound his hands behind him – but the TV star then shuffled forward into hot ashes.

The Gardeners’ World star first shared this traumatic memory in his 2007 autobiography, Nobbut A Lad.

‘I pretended to struggle as the newly fuelled flames licked around the chair legs,’ he wrote in the autobiography, according to the Express.

Alan continued: ‘The rope did catch fire, and so did the legs of the chair, but because the timing had not been orchestrated by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the rope didn’t give way and within a few minutes the flames were spreading to the broken cane seat and licking round the seat of my pants.’

The heat was so intense that the soles of Alan’s shoes even melted as he struggled to break free of the bindings.

He continued: ‘I tried to move, but realised that if the chair toppled, I would fall headlong into the flames.

‘I had to be hauled from the fire by Mickey, who grabbed the back of the chair just as the broken leg collapsed, but mercifully before my trousers were alight. He beat out the flames with an old curtain that he found in the hedge bottom.’

Alan previously recounted an incident where he was accidentally set alight (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)

It’s unclear where either boy’s parents were when this dramatic fire was happening but Alan confirmed his mother never found out.

He blamed the smokey smell on a barbeque and admitted he was relieved to have gotten away with the ordeal without worrying his mum.

Now, he realises he was in fact lucky to get away with his life, more than just a worried and upset parent.

Alan wrote: ‘It never occurred to me that I’d actually been lucky to get away with my life. But more importantly, Mum never did find out.’

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