IN all walks of life, we only need to look around to see injustice of one sort or another.

To say we are all created equal is a fallacy.

Some of us are never treated as equals. We undoubtedly live in a “them-and-us” society.

I was born into abject poverty and am now nearing life’s end. I have worked all my life – I’ve got nowt and never had owt – yet have never begged, borrowed or stolen in my life.

I now find myself more or less excluded from society in general.

I happen to suffer from a malfunction of the cochlea (inner ear). Wearing hearing aids to both ears allows me to pick up sound and regulate it to my preferred volume. The sound is then transferred to the inner ear, there to be filtered and interpreted before being transferred to the brain as an understandable message.

Regrettably, this malfunction of my inner ear renders it unable to carry out its natural function.

I have extreme difficulty in interpreting any sound whatsoever. The television, telephone and the wireless are beyond my understanding altogether.

Representation and application was made to the James Cook Hospital, Middlesbrough, seeking the fitting of a cochlea implant, thus alleviating my distress. Their final decision: you don’t fit the criteria for a cochlea implant – application denied.

I am in no doubt whatsoever that had I been some local dignitary or recognised celebrity I would have fitted the criteria.

A Dunn, Spennymoor.