For the first time in her 24 years, Brisbane’s Jamie-Lee Lewis can hear in water,

For two months, Jamie-Lee Lewis has barely been able to wipe the smile off her face.

And the simple cause is one the vast majority of us barely realise exists.

For 24 years the Queensland water polo champion - diagnosed profoundly deaf aged just one - has existed in silence anywhere near the water. Jamie-Lee Lewis in competition.

Jamie-Lee Lewis in competition.

Her $25,000 Cochlear implant, which hears for her in all other aspects of her everyday life, could not go the one place she loves being the most - in the pool.

So she swam in silence. Played water polo in silence. Spent childhood summers in the pool playing with others in silence. Went to the beach in silence.

But no more.

More than 20 years after it pioneered the revolutionary hearing device, Cochlear, the manufacturer of the implant, has developed a waterproof silicone sleeve to protect it in the water, the Aqua+, which only became available in Australia in September.

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