Top national honour for dedicated president of Australia's CI Club, Susan Walters
Awards
A lifetime dedicated to supporting people with hearing loss has brought Susan Walters, president of the Cochlear Implant Club and Advisory Association, supreme national recognition in the form of The Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM).
The honour is made all the more poignant by Ms Walters having been the first person in New South Wales to be given a cochlear implant (CI). She underwent what was then radically new surgery, in Sydney aged 22, back in 1984, and has run a support group for CI patients ever since.
“I have put a lot of effort into it in the past 35 years or so. It’s a nice acknowledgement because we’re a little grassroots core group,” Ms Walters said.
This year’s Australia Day 2019 Honours list is also special for boasting the highest ever number of female recipients, as well as a record awards haul for those recognised for services to the community.
Source: St. George and Sutherland Shire Leader
