Health
A passion for solving problems Print E-mail
Britain’s best-known agony aunt, Claire Rayner, talks to Tim Russell about her career as a writer, broadcaster and health campaigner. For several days Claire Rayner’s life hung in the balance. A routine leg operation had gone disastrously wrong and her family feared the worst.

“I injured a tendon while on holiday and needed surgery. The anaesthetic failed and I developed every condition you can think of, including septicemia and kidney failure,” explains Claire. “I was given dialysis and lots of steroids, which gave me cataracts, so I’ve had two cataract operations. I spent a long time in intensive care. But I’m better again now and still busy campaigning for the causes that mean the most to me.”

These include RNID’s Breaking the Sound Barrier campaign, which aims to change the country’s attitudes towards hearing loss. Claire has written an agony aunt column on the RNID website, which encourages readers to call their specially developed, phone-based hearing test.

“I’ve received many letters from people whose friends and family are losing their hearing, but don’t want to admit it,” says Claire. “A lot of people feel a bit scared and ashamed of having a hearing loss, but they don’t have to be. The latest digital hearing aids are very comfortable to wear and help you to live life to the full.“I’ve been deaf for many years and my digital aids have improved my hearing enormously. Nothing can compare to the human ear, which is a wonderful mechanism, but the aids are a great help.”
Having worked as a nurse, Claire learnt very quickly that it doesn’t pay to delay when it comes to medical matters. “If you have a problem, then it’s important to deal with it straight away. That’s why I’m urging people to take the RNID phone test if they think they may have a hearing loss.”
 

Early start


Claire started work as a nursing cadet when she was just 14, and found the job a welcome escape from the problems she faced at home. Born in the East End of London, Claire had a difficult childhood. Her mother was a cold and distant figure, who made her feel guilty and worthless, while her father was always on the run, often with the family in tow, looking for quick money. This meant they were constantly changing addresses – and sometimes even their names – to get him out of trouble.

Claire was seen as a ‘big mouth’ and ‘problem child’ but she soon discovered she had a real talent for writing, and excelled in writing essays at the City of London School for Girls. She also developed a lifelong love of literature, especially Shakespeare, Arnold Bennett and JB Priestley: “I joined the local library and read my way through the entire children’s section before starting on the classics.”

When the Second World War broke out, Claire and her two sisters were evacuated to families in the country. Claire spent time in Yorkshire, Wales, Wiltshire, Herefordshire and Devon, but was miserable and ran away four times. By the age of 14 she was determined to find a job and enrolled at Epsom Cottage Hospital in Surrey, pretending she was 17. “I loved the hospital and felt very comfortable there. The moment I set foot in it everything seemed right for me.”

Claire later trained at the Royal Northern Hospital School of Nursing and became a midwife, after taking a course at Guy’s Hospital. Her next ambition was to study medicine, but she was forced to give this up when she married her then-actor husband, Desmond. The medical school told her it wouldn’t tolerate a married medical student, so she fell into journalism instead. This enabled her to work from home and bring up her three children.

But what started as a way of earning extra income soon became a successful career. “I always knew I could write but I hadn’t realised until then that I could also sell my work. When I started writing, most of my work was what I knew – nursing stuff and childcare. I’d been teaching people as part of my job for years, so writing was a good substitute.”

Her big breakthrough came in 1966 when she was made medical correspondent at Woman’s Own. She played a big part in the magazine’s success and seven years later she was given her own advice column on The Sun.

It was read by millions and made her the most famous agony aunt in the country. She was soon given her own television show, Claire Rayner’s Casebook, and became a regular on TV-AM. “At one point I received 1,000 letters a week and worked from my own front room with the help of six secretaries. The letters came from people of all ages, sexes and social backgrounds. I made sure I read and replied to every one of them, because they were all riveting.”

Claire later joined The Daily Mirror and the Today newspaper, and continued to campaign on many social issues that were important to her. These included free contraception for all those who needed it, free sex education for people of all ages, and the freedom of choice for women to have an abortion. Many of her campaigns angered the likes of Mary Whitehouse, but that never bothered Claire. She was rewarded for her work in the 1996 New Year’s Honours, receiving an OBE for services to women’s issues and health issues.

A hearing problem


Claire first realised she needed hearing aids about 15 years ago. “I knew I had to act quickly because I’d be out of a job if I couldn’t listen to people. My GP was very helpful and put me in touch with an ENT consultant and I now have two state-of-the-art digital hearing aids.” Claire also has tinnitus, which she developed after taking an arthritis drug.“It damaged my auditory nerve and has left me with a ringing in my ears. It’s very annoying but I’ve learnt to ignore it and live with deafness as best I can.”

Claire chairs a lot of committee meetings and so she tells people right at the start that she is deaf and they will need to speak up a bit.

“I’m fine in one-to-one situations but it’s always difficult to pick up conversations in a crowded room. I can lip read pretty well as long as people look at me when they are talking and don’t cover their mouths. It’s important not to be shy about asking people to repeat themselves. If I can’t hear someone, I’ll say, ‘Speak up, I’m a bit mutton’. On most occasions people do, but I find it annoying when I’m told what they said doesn’t matter. Well it does, or you shouldn’t have said it, and you should repeat yourself as often as necessary. Otherwise you are excluding the other person from the conversation.”

As well as her work as an agony aunt, Claire became a prolific author. She has written 90 books, half of which are novels. “I started putting aside two days a week that I could spend writing my novels,” says Claire. “I’ve always had a penchant for packing days as tightly as a sardine can. It’s something I learnt during my nursing days, when I had to be able to do three things at the same time, and during my children’s upbringing when the only chance I had to write was while they were asleep or at nursery school.”

Claire and her artist husband have been married for 49 years and have three children, all of whom have followed in Claire’s footsteps – daughter Amanda has published two novels and works as an events organiser, while their two sons, Jay and Adam, are both journalists.“Adam has fitted a couple of loops so I can hear the TV in the living room and my bedroom. I also have an RNID gadget that enables me to raise the volume on my phone. I’m thinking of getting a special doorbell as we have a big house and I can’t always hear when people ring the bell.” She is also passionate about classical music. “I love the opera and it’s great when there are surtitles. I first saw them used in Sydney and they are wonderful.”

Still passionate


Claire has now retired as an agony aunt because she feels many people now get their information from the Internet. She is also concerned that many publications are ‘dumbing down’ by using celebrities as agony aunts: “There are a few honourable exceptions like Virginia Ironside and Mariella Frostrup, but most of them write rubbish now.”

The last few years have seen Claire move from being a carer, whose career has been devoted to helping others, to someone who is aware of her own physical frailties. She is now 75, has had knee problems, undergone surgery for breast cancer, and had a pacemaker fitted. But this has not stopped her from feeling as passionate as ever about helping those people who are in most need of advice and support.

As the patron or supporter of over 60 charities, Claire is keen to carry on her campaigning work. “After the operation to my leg, I can’t walk as well as I used to and I have to use sticks or a wheelchair. But I’m still determined to carry on campaigning and supporting the causes that mean the most to me, causes like Breaking the Sound Barrier.”

This interview appeared earlier this year in the RNID's membership magazine One in Seven.
 
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