BEFORE I go any further, I should acknowledge the fact that my mum, now approaching 93, is a ruddy marvel.

Still independent, still doing her own shopping, still keeping her garden immaculate, and still doing a daily Codeword puzzle. We know how lucky we are that she’s in such good nick.

However, as magnificent as she is, she’s developed a terrible stubborn streak over her increasing hearing problems.

She grudgingly accepts that she has tinnitus – or “tittyness” as she calls it – in one ear. However, she refuses pointblank to go and see about getting help.

“Mum, you need a hearing-aid – it would make a massive difference,” I said to her during our daily phone chat the other day.

“Sorry, you’ll have to repeat that, son,” she said.........

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