Journalist and presenter Susanna Reid has spoken out about her ten-year battle with tinnitus.
The Good Morning Britain presenter revealed her lengthy struggle with the condition on Monday, admitting her fears when she was first diagnosed that she wouldn’t ever hear silence again.
“When I first started hearing it, which is probably about 10 years ago, I became quite distressed that I would never hear silence again,” she said, adding that she thinks the condition was brought on by a difficult labour with her second son, Finn.
The 44-year-old suffers with a mild but nevertheless significant form of tinnitus and as part of the feature on the show was subjected to an extreme form of the condition through a pair of headphones.
“I’ve switched to what some people suffer and to what might be described as the worst form which is this sort of high-pitched noise that comes and goes,” she told the show’s viewers.
As part of the feature, she sat in on a meeting with some of her colleagues in her studio “and it was busy and there were other distracting noises but of course in the silence of the dressing room you can’t really focus on anything else,” she said.
“It’s so utterly distracting hearing this noise and I’m lucky enough that I’ve got the choice not to have to.”
Susanna spoke out as the annual Tinnitus Awareness Week got underway. The campaign, which this year runs from 2nd – 8th February, sees organisations and individuals throughout the country setting out to raise awareness of tinnitus, which affects one in 10 people in the UK.
You can find out more about Tinnitus Awareness Week by clicking here.