Sharon King Hearing Centre has been running out of St Elmo’s Chambers on Otho Street once a week for the past year, and will be expanding to two days from July.

“We felt that there was a need to have someone here on a more permanent basis,” she said, explaining that she was passionate about providing rural services.

Audiometry is in Sharon’s blood, with her father working in hearing since she was a toddler and her sister in the same business. 

Sharon said being unable to hear could be incredibly isolating for patients and she loves seeing how much a hearing aid can change a person’s life.

“They come in, and they look like they’ve got the weight of the world on their shoulders, and really down, and then the next time you see them, you think, ‘Wow. It looks like a different person,’” she said. 

“They can hear, they belong to the world again.” 

Emily Wilson has been working with Sharon since 2013, and from July, she will be a fully trained audiometrist.  She said she also loves seeing patients change into happier people.

“(I) couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else now.”

Sharon King Hearing can provide services to pensioners and veterans free of charge.