In 1988, Members of Buckingham Lions Club regularly took a member of Milton Keynes "InStomaTic Laryngectomy Club from Buckingham to his monthly meeting at MK hospital.
A member of this Club had bought an amplifier and a tie clip microphone to use at his ex Services social club to make himself heard. He had mounted the mike on a stick so that he could hold it to his lips and away from his stoma. He now wanted a "hands free" mike and asked for our help.
Commercial boom microphones were very expensive (about £200) so a prototype was knocked up from the contents of a garage scrap box made up from plastic tube, a plastic bead and a strong paper clip to enable it to be fixed to his spectades.
Soon, other members of the Club wanted one of the kits so a "cottage" industry was started, (in a Buckingham Lions garage) converting bought in amplifiers and manufacturing the boom microphones and spectacle clips.
Other Laryngectomy Clubs in the area heard about them and asked for demonstrations and were soon placing orders.
The project at this time was supported and funded by Buckingham Lions.Club. The Region Chairman heardabout the project on one of his visits and took the news of it to the Lions District Board as a possible District project.
A committee was set up in early 1989 to co-ordinate the project and Clubs in the Lions District donated funds to start production of the Laryngectomy project.
Amplifiers were bought in bulk (100) from Tandy, converted to power the lightweight microphone, and supplied with a spectacle clip now being manufactured by Able Springs.
In 1993, the supply of amplifiers from Tandy was brought into question and it was decided to design and manufacture our own using hobby project cases from Maplin Electronics and circuit boards to our design made by a "cottage industry" based in St Neots.
Design of the Aid (now called Lions Speech Aid) has evolved with a series of improvements to its present design. It is now fitted with a touch contact switch, indicator light and an isolator switch for transportation. A remote switch manufactured by Toby Churchill Ltd can be supplied for people with some physical disorders.
Sales of the Speech Aid average 60 per year, not perhaps setting the world alight, but steadily helping more people each year Some Speech and Language Therapy Departments lend units out on short-term loans to help people recover from treatment.
The present unit is used by a wide band of speech impaired clients and purchased by NHS Trusts, private individuals, Lions Clubs, support charities (e.g. The Parkinson's Disease Society) and by friends and relatives of "whispered speech" sufferers.
