Mum's magical gift 'I CAN FINALLY HEAR MY KIDS'

Following life-changing surgery, brave Kara is urging others like her to listen up

- Kasia Jillings

After living with a significant hearing impairment for most of her life, Kara Johnson didn’t expect her own footsteps to be so loud and distracting or the sound of her baby laughing to be so sweet.

It’s all thanks to a life-changing cochlear implant that the Feilding mum no longer misses out on fully experiencing these precious moments. “Tilly was five months old when I had the surgery and the first time I heard her properly laugh was so special,” recalls Kara, 32.

It means all the more as she didn’t get to hear the first giggles of her two older children but now, smiling, she shares she doesn’t miss a thing, including her older children whispering and plotting together.

The mother of Connor, 11, Sofi a, eight, and Tilly, three, says her life is completely different since the implant procedure in 2020. But the most profound impact was empowering her to leave a former relationship.

“I relied a lot on my partner at the time to involve me in social situations and help with things I was missing,” she explains. “It got to the point I relied on him so much, I felt like if I left, I couldn’t do it myself.”

Kara says she couldn’t see a way out until she received the cochlear implant.