'I had mumps as a child and became completely deaf in my right ear'

AT JUST four years old, Emma Davies-McIntosh contracted mumps - an illness her family never imagined would leave lasting scars.

- LUCY JOHN Reporter

But behind the headaches and fatigue, something more sinister was unfolding.

Unbeknown to her parents, the virus quietly stole her hearing in one ear, altering the course of her life forever.

Now a valued member of the Cardiff and Vale public health team, Emma has shared her story to encourage parents to get their children vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella at the earliest opportunity. “If vaccination rates start to fall, we will start to see incidents of infectious diseases in more significant numbers - and conditions like measles and mumps can be very serious, particularly for children,” she explained.

“I've been left with a permanent hearing loss from mumps, and as I think about getting older, I’m terrified about losing my hearing completely.”

As the years went by, Emma's parents started noticing she was always putting the phone to her left ear instead of her right.

“But it wasn’t until I went to school - and started having hearing tests in a school environment - that my parents were informed that I was deaf on my right side,” added Emma, who was diagnosed with hearing loss at the age of seven.

“Perhaps I hadn’t noticed my hearing problem in the way my parents might have expected me to.”

After her diagnosis, Emma was advised to sit at the front of the classroom in school to make sure she was close enough to hear the teachers.