Ear wax removal clinic opens in Hartlepool after business sees 300% growth year on year

Ear Clear Hearing Care Limited has been operating every Tuesday and Thursday since April 14 from the Gladstone House Surgery, in the Victoria Medical Centre ,and there are hopes it will expand as demand increases.

It offers ear wax removal, as well as creating ear moulds for hearing protection for reasons such as swimming, motorsports, shooting, industry or for musicians.

Owner Katherine Hannaway, 38, has said the response from residents in the town has been positive, with many patients getting in touch to congratulate them on the new clinic.

"It’s busy. We’re doing two days at the moment, we want to increase that as we see the demand increase and hopefully try and get a few other surgeries dotted around,” she said.

"We’ve had a positive response from the residents.”

The business was started by Katherine and her husband, Anthony Hannaway, 45, back in 2018 after Katherine was made redundant from Boots Hearing care because it was no longer going to offer the service.

Katherine, who has an audiology degree and over nine years experience in the field, was initially doing home visits before securing her first clinic in Middlesbrough.

Since then, the service has grown from just seven appointments in its first month to over a hundred each month now, and has two two full time clinics in Middlesbrough, as well the new one in Hartlepool.

Katherine has said she is “extremely proud” of the expansion, which has seen 300 per cent growth year on year.

"We had no funding, no loans, no nothing. We’ve literally done it from scratch. We’ve done everything ourselves. We’ve had no help.

"Absolutely, immensely proud of what we’ve achieved. I never in a million years thought that it would be this successful,” said Katherine.

There are four permanent members of staff at the moment, with up to four more to be recruited for the Hartlepool clinic.

Katherine, from Middlesbrough, added: “Hopefully there will be more expansions throughout the area within the next year as well as we get more staff.”