A former bus driver deafened in an IRA bomb blast is hoping to become a counsellor for other victims of trauma following pioneering surgery by top specialists in Bradford which helped him hear again.

Bob Newitt completely lost his hearing when the device exploded as he drove a bus through the Aldwych in London in February 1996.

But following surgery for a cochlear implant at Bradford Royal Infirmary - the first operation of its kind on a bomb victim - and intensive work helping him to use the sophisticated hearing aid, he can have one-to-one conversations with people.

Now he is hoping to turn his special insight to good use and become a counsellor helping deaf people and trauma victims come to terms with their problems.

Mr Newitt, who lives in Holbeck, Leeds, said he was still looking to get further improvements in his hearing.

He could now understand one-to-one conversations and was gradually picking up environmental sounds but had problems if there was background noise and could not hear the telephone, music or the television.

"When you can't hear anything at all and then you are able to communicate with people on a one-to-one basis it's obviously brilliant," he said.

Chris Raine, consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon who led the implant surgery at BRI where Mr Newitt goes for regular after-care sessions, said it was a long process adapting to the aid.

"It's not something that can happen overnight. We feel it will be a couple of years before he gets full use out of it."

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