It's now a joy for Rita Berry to hear her grandchildren after missing out with her own children as they grew up.

Rita was nine when meningitis robbed her of her hearing and almost her sight.

"It did not bother me growing up - when you're are a child you just accept it," said Rita, 67, of Thornton.

"My mum always said there would be something one day that would help me hear."

Her mother was right, and 12 years ago Rita was fitted with a cochlear implant at the Yorkshire Cochlear Implant Service at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

"I went through life OK until I was about 50, when I read about cochlear implants in the paper," she said. "I went to my doctor who said go for a test'."

Rita was found to be suitable but unfortunately there was no funding. She embarked on fundraising car boot sales but it was five years later, when her eyesight began to fail, that the breakthrough came.

She underwent a cataract operation and while in hospital a nurse mentioned the cochlear implants. Rita again went to her doctor, who referred her to BRI. This time there was funding for people who were deaf and having problems with their eyes.

"It was marvellous," she said. "I could not believe I could hear things."

Rita was married to late husband Jack for 39 years and they had two children, Jane and Joanne, who in turn have given her three grandchildren Naomi and Carla, both aged 19, and four-year-old Jamie.

"It has been wonderful to be able to communicate with them," she said.

It was not all plain sailing, and she admits that without the support of Salim, a member of the YCIS team, she might have given up.

"When you have been deaf for so long and then hear noise it is hard to come to terms with - it is like a badly tuned radio to begin with," she said.

Rita, who runs an over 55s group at Bradford Deaf Centre in Hallfield Road and also a drop-in group for the deaf and hard of hearing and their carers on Fridays, knows how hard it is to live with deafness.

"People do not understand," she said.

"It is a hidden thing and people get the wrong impression sometimes. With the speech they think I am a bit slow which is annoying, but because I was deaf so young you just come to terms with it."

Rita has now had her implant for 12 years. She visits the centre once a year and would encourage anyone who is suitable for an implant to go ahead.

"There is nothing to be afraid of," she said. "I think it is really good for children to be able to grow up with some form of sound. Having an implant opens doors."