2026
Our next meeting will be on Monday 13th April when, after lipreading practice, we'll be having a Beetle Drive run by Doreen Shaw. Do come along — it's always a great afternoon!
We are also looking for both sponsors and participants for this year's annual Rotary Club walk, which starts in Shalford on Saturday 17th May. Please email, call or ask at our next meeting. Sponsorship forms are available.
Our last meeting was on Monday 23rd March 2026. We began, as always, with lipreading practice — this time on a fun and wide-ranging theme: the various species of bears found around the world, along with a few much-loved cartoon bear characters for good measure!
We then enjoyed a fascinating talk from our own Jean Davy on discovering Israel: its landscapes, flora and fauna. When Jean first travelled there in the late 1970s — on a working visit to the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem — it marked the beginning of years of extended stays across the country. From the ancient hills of Jerusalem to the shores of Galilee, she experienced Israel through its changing seasons, observing wildflowers, birdlife and dramatic landscapes not as a tourist, but as someone who truly lived among them.
We are also looking for both sponsors and participants for this year's annual Rotary Club walk, which starts in Shalford on Saturday 17th May. Please email, call or ask at our next meeting.Our meeting on 9th March opened with our popular lipreading practice, this time exploring the language of First Aid — a topic that's both practical and surprisingly rich in vocabulary. The word defibrillator proved a memorable challenge for everyone, and raised a few smiles along the way. After a welcome tea break, we held our Annual General Meeting — a chance to look back on a busy and positive twelve months together, and to look ahead to some exciting plans for the year to come.
Every year on 3rd March, the World Health Organisation's World Hearing Day delivers a clear message: hearing loss is a growing global crisis, but much of it is preventable. The WHO's recent campaigns focus on changing mindsets, tackling stigma, and empowering individuals to act early. At the Guildford Hard of Hearing Support Group, these values have guided everything we do since 1947. Click here for more information about World Hearing Day.
At our meeting on February 23rd we enjoyed a seated Tai Chi session with Dr Luke Zhang. Dr Zhang is a retired hospital doctor from China with over thirty years of Tai Chi experience and a twice-crowned Beijing Tai Chi Champion. After completing his MBA at the University of Surrey, he founded Tai Chi Guildford in 2009 to provide holistic Tai Chi services for physical and mental wellbeing. What distinguishes Luke is his unique combination of western medical training and proven Tai Chi expertise. This blend enables him to deliver an evidence-based, holistic approach that bridges eastern and western health practices. https://taichiguildford.co.uk
At our February 9th meeting we had a talk by Neil Mach on the history of the Women’s Land Army in Surrey. Neil Mach is a local English novelist with over 20 published books, specialising in fantasy fiction featuring strong women, independent loners, and outsiders driven by loyalty and duty. The idea of using women (to replace men) on the land, in times of emergency, was initially developed in Surrey. The Women’s Land Army came into being in this County before the Great War. During the conflict, the Land Army employed 23,000 female workers to fill the roles of 100,000 male farmworkers who had gone to fight. During the Second World War, the Women’s Land Army enlisted over 80,000 women. More than a third of these came from London to work in the Surrey fields. Neil, whose mother was a Land Army veteran, interviewed three Surrey women who served in the WLA during WW2 and his talk reflects these experiences and the challenges of wartime life on the land. For more information on Neil click here: https://www.neilmachauthor.com
At our January 26th meeting, our lipreading session focused on the challenging 'OY' and 'OI' sounds. We practiced distinguishing between different types of oil, then explored the fascinating D'Oyly Carte family history to help us master these tricky sound combinations. After the tea break, Bob Fowkes led us through an engaging journey spanning over 500 years of gin history, revealing how this spirit became deeply intertwined with Britain's social and political development across the centuries.
2025
We were delighted to welcome twenty two members to our first meeting of 2026 on January 12th. The lipreading session celebrated famous Dames from the worlds of sport, arts, literature and show business. The session was followed by a social gathering, giving members their first chance of the New Year to reconnect and share their festive news.
Twenty-two members of the group enjoyed a wonderful Christmas lunch at Squires Garden Centre in Godalming on December 8th. The festive three-course meal was enjoyed by all, and the venue's welcoming atmosphere made it the perfect setting for our seasonal gathering. It was a brilliant start to the Christmas festivities and a lovely opportunity for members to catch up and celebrate together.
On 24 November our lipreading session was all about the various guises of Dr Who and some of the other “characters” in this long-running series. After the tea break, Martyn lead us through a mystery exercise of a nature never seen at our meetings before. This was a one-off art and crafts session inspired by an activity used during the Covid episode to get people to engage without being too close. Martyn lead us through drawing some shapes, choosing our favourites, cutting them out on coloured paper and mounting them on black card. The results were impressive, revealing hidden artistic talents among the membership.
Lipreading practice on 10 November was all about the natural history of the Bald Eagle with some astonishing facts about this bird. After the tea break we had a great time with a Beetle Drive
Our meeting on 27 October began with practicing lipreading the “ow” shape - and w now know a lot more about the Natural History of Barn Owls. After the tea break Celia talked about her fascination with Hadrian’s Wall, setting it in context with Iron Age Briton and the Roman Empire.
Our lipreading practice on 13 October was all about words using the P, B and M mouth shapes which are notoriously similar. After the tea break Andrew Gadd (volunteer with Trading Standards) gave us an excellent presentation on how to spot online scams and how to spot and protect ourselves against them.
In a change to our scheduled programme on 22 September, we hosted two people from the NHS conducting a survey of what works well and what doesn’t in NHS Audiology services. This provoked a very lively discussion.
The first meeting in September got off to a good start, with lipreading practice based on 100th anniversary of the chocolate digestive biscuit. Then we had a bit of a tea party, and rounded it off with a quiz.
During August we had an impromptu gathering at Winkworth Arboretum for cream tea and a visit to the lake.
For our last indoor meeting before the summer break, our lipreading session was all about the “OO” sound. After the tea breaking Sally gave us a wonderful talk about her visit to Peru.
Our lipreading practice on 14 July was all about the current fad for owning fish indoors working on the F/V mouth shape. This was followed by one of Doreen’s Beetle Drives.
On 23rd June we practiced reading the “W” shape with a session about the Windrush Generation. After the tea break, local historian David Rose treated us to a talk about the Isle of Wight illustrated through picture postcards from the 50’s and 60’s. It was a trip down memory lane for many of us.
Events began quietly enough on 9 June with a lipreading session devoted to biscuits: their variety, their dunking qualities, and the top ten most dangerous ones. After the tea break, we were treated to a presentation of the history of Clandon House, the consequences of the fire there on in 2015, and what the National Trust plans to do about the building henceforth. Ironically, just as the talk finished, the fire alarm went of in St Catherine’s Village Hall and we were able to practice our evacuation plan.
On 12 May, Liz concentrated on words containing the “AY” sound during our lipreading practice. That was followed by and entertaining look at the mountains and valleys of the Swiss Alps, given by Chris Hutchinson.
28th April: Following lipreading practice concentrating on the mouth shape “B” and all about Honey Bees, Michael Gilbert took us down memory lane with an illustrated talk about the Festival of Britain.
Lipreading practice lead by Liz Richardson, our Tutor, was devoted to words begining with the “V” lip-shape - especially Victoria. After the tea break, Lorimer Burn shared with us some exciting stories from his carer as a pilot of helicopters, and commercial jets.
Our meeting on 24 March started off with lipreading practice - highlighting the AW mouth shape. Sadly our speaker was indisposed, but Doreen organised one of her delightful Beetle Drives.
10 March was our AGM day, but before the tea break we had our usual lipreading practice. Liz, our tutor devoted the session to the R - one of the more tricky mouth shapes to spot.
24 February saw us practicing lipreading about Daffodils (the T, D and N group) and Welsh Traditions on St David’s Day. This was followed by a talk by Leonie Dove on the importance of Lasting Powers of Attorney, and the things to be thought about before embarking on drawing one up.
Our first February Meeting (on 10th) was lipreading on the theme of the consonant group Sh, Ch, J and zh and we talked about famous Johns. After the tea break, Dr Judy Hill gave us a wonderful talk about the friendship between Edwin Lutyen and Gertrude Jekyll.
On 27 January, we began with lipreading practice as usual, and followed that up with a Bingo session run by Kay.
This is always good for a Our meeting on 13 January got 2025 off to a good start with a lipreading session all about the consonant D (part of the T, D, N group) and much hilarity about rubber ducky. This was followed by a great discussion about how we plan our programme of events.
2024
Lipreading practice on 25 November centred on ways to celebrate Christmas! After the tea break, in change to published programme, we had a crossword where players had to lipread the clues. It gave us a chance to practice lipreading different people, and was hilarious. Many thanks to Julian who master-minded the event.
The theme for our lipreading practice on 11 November was appropriately poppies - not just the Flanders poppy for Remembrance, but a number of others - both common and rare. After the tea break we had a hilarious Beet Drive
Lipreading on 28 October was built around fireworks, and we learned about how they were discovered! One of our members then gave a very interesting talk about his visit to the Antarctic, accompanied with some astonishingly good photographs.
Liz themed our lip-reading practice on 14 October around Birmingham - its place in history and some of the famous people born there. After the tea break, Susan Purcell gave a fascinating insight into the social reasons why dialects and accents emerge, or die out, especially why Surrey’s own dialect developed, but has now disappeared.
Our meeting on 23 September attracted a big audience. Our lipreading practice was built around the topic of Shopping. After the tea break a spokes person from Audiology gave a presentation about the hearing aids currently being supplied by the Royal Surrey County Hospital. We also held a Bring and Buy sale to help boost funds.
We had an excellent meeting on 9 September - following the summer break. Liz took us through phrases associated with getting up in the morning, and then we talked about what we keep in the garden shed! After the tea break, we heard from the Woodland Trust. It is astonishing how many trees they help to plant every year, but it is still only a tiny fraction of what has been lost.
For the final lipreading session before the August break (22 July), our tutor took us through fish (the short “I” sound. After listing and our favourite fish recipes , several tummies were rumbling! This was followed by an uproarious Beetle Drive.
The Summer outing this year on 10 July was to Savill Garden. The weather was kind to us - dry, and not too hot, with the flowers showing to good advantage. We had a great time.
Our lipreading session on 24 June was all about the “EE” sound - and yes Cheese in all its various flavours was on the menu. After the tea break, local historian David Rose gave an illustrated talk on the history of the Way Navigation - the first of its kind in the country.
On 10 June we began the afternoon with a lip-reading session devoted to different kinds of shops. After the tea break, a representative of the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance Service gave us a wonderful talk about the work of this charity.
Meeting on a Thursday (30 May) to avoid the Bank Holiday Monday, we were given a session on the mouth shape for the sound “ow” by our Vice Chair and one-time lipreading tutor Kay Murray. In a change to the published programme, the session after the tea break was a DVD of the Wildlife of Gambia. Our feet were tapping along to the rhythms of the African music in the background.
On 13 May Liz, inspired by the recent displays of the Northern Lights, presented a session on lipreading the names of colours. After the tea break, Martyn gave us a useful and entertaining demonstration of ways to keep safe online.
For our meeting on 22 April, we started the meeting with a session on the “EE” vowel shape with plenty of discussion about Cream teas, and then a noisy tea break while everyone caught up with their friends. After their wonderful talk about cochlear implants last year, Vicki and Rebecca returned to talk about Bone Anchored Hearing Aids - the next step after hearing aids. For more information about these devices go to click here.
Our Beetle Drive on 8 April was a great success. It came after a lipreading session given by Liz, built around the “AW” mouth shape
There was a good turn out at our meeting on 25 March. Liz introduced the “o” mouth shape in a lipreading session on Spring and Insects. After the tea break, one of our members gave a talk on his experiences with hearing loss from an early childhood. While pictures of the first NHS hearing aids were fascinating, some aspects of living with hearing impairment never change!
On 11 March, Liz guided us through lipreading on the topic of Spring. After the tea break we held our AGM.
We had a good lipreading session put on by Liz on 26 February with lots of out-of-context examples to concentrate our minds. This was followed by an excellent talk from the Police about how best to contact them when we do not hear well.
Our meeting on 12 February was well attended with 27 members present. Liz took us down memory lane with a lipreading session about toys of our childhood. After the tea break, Jean showed slides of the geography, floers and animals to be found in Israel.
On 22 January we practiced lipreading words beginning with W - not to be confused with the Q shape. After the tea break we had a hilarious Beetle Drive organised by member Doreen.
We welcomed two new faces to our meeting on 8 January, which comprised the usual lipreading practice. The tea break that followed went on until 4pm while we caught up with each others’ news.
2023
28 members of the group met at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre for a Christmas lunch. We were fortunate to host the Worshipful Mayor of Guildford, Councillor Masud Miah.
Our final meeting of the year on 27 November was a festive mixed bag of exercises in the lipreading practice conducted by Liz. After tea, which Doreen organised a Beetle Drive with the usual boisterous hilarity.
6 November - Liz, our lipreading tutor, took us through the mouth shape for ‘Sh’, ‘Ch’, ‘J’ and ‘Zh’ - totally indistinguishable, and ran exercises on Shampoo. To round the session off, the Mystery person turned out to be Alan Sugar. After the break the Chair talked about Dowsing to a rapt audience.
On 23 October, our resident Lipreading tutor took us through a practice session on the theme of Hallowe’en. After the tea break we enjoyed an excellent talk by Dr Judy Hill on Osborne House in the Isle of Wight, and its importance to Victoria and Albert.
After a delightful lipreading session based on Alice in Wonderland on 9 October, we had a lively talk given by Ella of Amplifon on developments in hearing aid technology. We were at pains to tell her we still need the tele-coil as well as Bluetooth in our hearing aids, otherwise we will be unable to hear any of the existing T-Loops in shops, banks, rail stations, theatres, places of worship meetings and all sorts of other places. Manufacturers need to recognise they can’t just ditch this very valuable facility. If it means our next hearing aids have to be a bit chunky, so what? Hearing impairment is nothing to be ashamed of, and if it gives other people a visual clue that we need help understanding what they are saying that will be very beneficial.
The meeting on 25 September was very well attended. Liz began the proceedings with lipreading practice centred around the Equinox, a shape easily confused with the W, and after the tea break, Claudio Attieh of GN Resound told us all about the hearing aids which are now supplied under contract to Audiology at Royal Surrey County, Frimley Park, St Peter’s and Ashford hospitals.
Our Autumn programme got off to a good start on 11 September. Despite the hot weather, there was a good turn out, including three new guests who came along to try us out. Liz ran a lipreading session on the mouth shape for the word “ice” - very tricky to understand - and followed it up with a de-voiced article on Ice Houses. Very appropriate given the weather conditions. After the tea break, The OutReach officer for Surrey Fire and Rescue Service, gave us a very useful talk on the specific services and equipment available for the Hard of Hearing, and more general home safety measures. The was a heated debate (no pun intended) on the dangers of over-charging battery-operated devices such as phones and laptops.
For our last meeting of the summer on 24 July, we had lipreading practice on the theme of Wimbledon Common, followed by a talk from a representative of Trading Standards on guarding against scams.
12 July was the day for our Summer Outing. We took a boat trip on the Wey & Arun Canal at Loxwood. Despite the weather, we had a lovely time on their electric boat. Several people had a go at steering. It is not as easy as it looks….
After our lipreading practice session on 26 June we had a very well-received session in our occasional series on technology. Our member Martyn, who is very technically savvy took us through some useful gadgets which help us hear a mobile phone, and some apps for planning travel.
Despite the heat on 12 June we had a lively lipreading session focussing on the “AW” mouth shape. The talk on poisonous plants after the tea break was even more lively!
Our meeting on 22 May started off well with an hours lipreading based around the vowel sound “AW”, and lots of practice about holiday destinations. But after the tea break, the speaker from the police was a last minute no show, and while we could have run a Beetle Drive, people were so busy chatting it seemed a shame to break up the party.
Six hardy souls turned up for the Sponsored Walk organised by the Rotary on 21 May. Thank you to all the very generous souls who pledged donations.
Would you have a cochlear implant (CI) if you were offered it? Course you would. That was the message given to 17 of our members on 24 April by Rebecca, Vicky and Elizabeth of Cochlear UK Ltd. Hearing aids do a lot for us, but there comes a time when a CI is the next step on your journey. The consensus is that it makes your hearing almost normal and transforms your life, and everyone around you benefits too! Find out more about CI and the work that these ladies and their colleagues do to support people as they go through assessment and surgery to a great new life click here . That came after a lipreading session about books and their authors and a mystery person quiz given by Liz.
On 13 April (avoiding the Easter Bank holiday) we saw the final part of our in-house Managing Hearing Loss course with the conclusion of the basics of lipreading given by Liz, followed by a lively discussion on coping with social occasion lead by Kay.
Sight for Surrey visited on 27 March to demonstrate examples of equipment that is available to help those of us who wear hearing aids.
13 March was our AGM. We paid tribute to Kay who has been our lipreading tutor for over 25 years, and is stepping aside. The Mayor was indisposed, but his wife, Mrs Mary Booth stepped in to make a presentation, and we celebrated with a delicious cake made by Jean. Kay is remaining a member of the group and was voted in as Vice Chair, allowing Julian to give that up after five years. Julian is still on the Committee as programme planner for the time being.
On 13 February, Liz revised the major vowel shapes, and followed that up with details of the various organisations that exist to help people with hearing loss. At the second meeting in February we had more lipreading practice, and Kay lead a lively discussion on how to manage various forms of travel.
January started with a sociable meeting on the 9th, and two weeks later we held part three of our in-house Managing Hearing Loss course. Lipreading tutor Liz reviewed the main consonant groups and after the tea break, Kay, also lipreading tutor, took us through the conditions which make lipreading most effective.
For news and meeting reports from 2020 to 2022, visit our News Archive.