Eastbourne innovator creates app for people with dementia and hearing loss

Amanda Philpott is co-creator of eargym, an app that offers immersive games designed to challenge and strengthen a person’s hearing and stimulates cognitive skills linked to memory and strategy. She said: “We started eargym after discovering that age-related hearing loss is the biggest factor in nine per cent of all dementia. I have experience of unaddressed hearing loss among my family, so know the difficulties it can cause.

“We want to support people in living well for longer, and hope eargym will not only manage the symptoms of dementia but contribute to a reduction in the overall incidence of dementia. There are 26,500 people with dementia in Sussex, and soon to be a million across the UK. It is a disease that causes a lot of difficulties.”

Eargym was one of a handful of start-ups that received £100,000 from Alzheimer’s Society.

Peter Middleton, a 68-year-old former police officer, was diagnosed with young onset dementia in 2018. He said: “My dementia shows itself through anxiety and short-term memory issues. When I heard about eargym I was intrigued because my anxiety means I struggle concentrating in rooms with lots of chatter.

"Honing in on a particular conversation when there is background noise is something that everyone struggles with to a degree, but it is exacerbated for those with dementia. However, the app shows it is possible to train someone via repetition to concentrate better on conversations and make the process a little less scary for someone with dementia. It has helped having conversations when socialising with friends. Of course, it may not be as useful for people further along their journey with dementia. But it is immensely useful for those like me, or with early onset dementia who want to keep mentally active and stimulated to maintain a better quality of life for longer.

“Once someone has dementia, inevitably people focus on what is lost but instead, they should focus on what is there and try to build upon it. People affected by dementia can still learn new skills and enhance old ones, even after a diagnosis and that is what eargym does.”

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