“When I hear a noise, I feel like I’m being stabbed in the ear.” – Cindy Redmond, 14 
 
 One evening a year ago, Cindy Redmond was at a friend’s house, sitting at the kitchen table. Her friend’s stepfather, annoyed that Cindy was chatting on her phone at the table, blasted her with an air horn. 
 
 Cindy felt a burst of pain in her ears. Within days, she could no longer attend school. So many noises there — everything from teachers’ voices to cafeteria clatter — were amplified, loud and painful. 
 
 Cindy and her mom, Laurie Redmond, made the rounds of doctors, until they encountered someone who had heard of hyperacusis, or noise-induced pain. 
 
 To Cindy, all but the mildest noise feels like a knife stabbing her ear. 
 
 She also suffers from constant burning ear pain. 
 
 No available treatment has helped Cindy, and there is no cure. 
 
 Now, a year after her noise trauma, Cindy stays mostly in the quiet sanctuary of her home. She watched as her friends started high school without her. 
 
 She copes as best she can with earplugs and earmuffs, which keep the pain from worsening, though ear protection makes it hard for her to hear and communicate. 
 
 Please help Cindy live a normal life, free from noise-induced pain. 
 
 PLEASE HELP US FIND A #CURE4CINDY! 
 
 About Hyperacusis 
 
 Hyperacusis with pain, sometimes called noise-induced pain, is a new branch in the field of auditory pathology. 
 
 The primary cause is noise overexposure. An acoustic trauma, or noise injury, can result from one loud noise (airhorn, whistle, gunshot) or from constant exposure over time (concerts, headphones, power tools). 
 
 Other causes of hyperacusis are head or neck injuries, ototoxic drugs and some diseases, including Lyme disease. 
 
 Though noise overexposure usually causes hearing loss, in some cases it does the opposite, making noise seem too loud rather than too soft. 
 
 Hyperacusis is often accompanied by tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, and a pressure feeling called aural fullness, along with burning ear pain. 
 
 The condition sometimes improves — but it readily recurs from a noise as ordinary as a passing siren, a barking dog or even a clanking dish. 
 
 Cindy says, “Everything sounds louder and is painful in my ears. We need a cure for hyperacusis so that people like me can live a normal life.” 
 
 Our mission is to find a #Cure4Cindy and everyone else with noise-induced pain! 
 
 How to Help 
 
 Please donate what you can. No amount is too small! Donations are tax deductible. Donations can be made online here. 
 
 Share Cindy’s story via e-mail and social media. The hashtag is #Cure4Cindy. 
 
 Follow us at Facebook.com/Cure4Cindy for updates. 
 
 All donations go to the nonprofit Hyperacusis Research, to fund scientific research into noise-induced pain. Thank you for your support. It means the world to Cindy and to us. 
 
 PLEASE HELP US FIND A #CURE4CINDY! 
 
 Media Contact: hyperacusiscure@gmail.com 347-352-7056 
 
 Read more about Cindy! 
 
 People magazine 
 
 Daily Mail 
 
 Delaware News Journal 
 
 Yahoo! News 
 
 MSN 

 Sitting at the kitchen table at a friend’s house, Cindy Redmond made the mistake of chatting on her cellphone. 
 
 Get push notifications with news, features and more. 
 
 Her friend’s stepfather instructed her to hang up. She did so at his second request. Still annoyed, he blasted her with an air horn. 
 
 That careless action forever changed Cindy’s life. 
 
 An air horn at close range hits 130 decibels or more — loud enough to cause auditory destruction. 
 
 Cindy, who lives in Wilmington, Delaware, felt “off” in English class the next day. Her teacher’s voice seemed painfully loud. Cindy went home sick. That was a year ago. 
 
 Her ear pain grew so intense that she was never able to return to school. 
 
 Cindy, now 14, suffers from hyperacusis, a rare hearing disorder sometimes called noise-induced pain. Deep within her ear canals, she feels a constant fiery pain and pressure. 
 
 A sound as ordinary as clinking ice cubes “feels like someone is stabbing me in my ears,” she tells PEOPLE. 
 
 Cindy and Laurie Redmond Courtesy of the Redmond family 
 
 Cindy is now raising funds for the nonprofit Hyperacusis Research, which supports scientific research into noise-induced pain. (The Redmonds have decided not to pursue any legal action against her friend’s family, since the stepfather has a family of six to support.) 
 
 Cindy’s page, at Cure4Cindy.org, notes that an acoustic injury can result from one loud burst of noise or from cumulative exposure over time, which includes loud music and concerts. 
 
 Courtesy of the Redmond family 
 
 “People are unaware of the enormous destructive power of sound,” says Bryan Pollard, president of Hyperacusis Research. 
 
 Cindy should have started 9th grade at Brandywine High School last fall. “The school couldn’t make accommodations to soundproof her academic world,” her mother, Laurie Redmond, tells PEOPLE. 
 
 Instead, when Cindy’s pain is manageable, she goes once a week to a special school with no shrill bells, no slamming lockers and just a few other kids. 
 
 Cindy Redmond Courtesy of the Redmond family 
 
 Otherwise, she stays mostly in the quiet house she shares with her mother and some pets. Even watching television — with its unpredictable volume — is tough on her ears. 
 
 “Overexposure to sound does not always lead to conventional hearing loss,” says M. Charles Liberman, an otology professor at Harvard Medical School, who heads a hearing lab at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. 
 
 Instead, some people suffer the opposite: Noise becomes not too soft, but painfully loud, according to Cure4Cindy.org. 
 
 Descriptions of the ear pain are remarkably consistent — a burning feeling like molten metal along with a knifelike stab. 
 
 “It’s a sensation that most of us have rarely, if ever, experienced,” Liberman said. According to the latest research, one culprit may be pain-sensing nerve fibers deep within the inner ear. 
 
 When the noise stops, the pain continues, lingering or even worsening. Confusingly, most audiology tests appear normal. 
 
 Cindy Redmond Courtesy of the Redmond family 
 
 One recent day, when Cindy attempted a visit with friends, one girl squealed. 
 
 “Cindy started sobbing from the pain,” Laurie says. “Her friends insisted she was faking her injury, or her face would have turned more red.” 
 
 With no blood and no bandage, there is no sympathy either, says her mother. “I hear these stories over and over. She cries herself to sleep. My heart breaks for her.” 
 
 Cindy made the rounds of doctors, who were unhelpful. Pain medication had little effect. She tried a sound therapy that employs mild broadband noise but it made her worse and sparked tinnitus, or ringing in the ears. 
 
 Cindy Redmond Courtesy of the Redmond family 
 
 With no choice, Cindy copes by using earplugs and protective earmuffs, the kind worn by airport baggage handlers. 
 
 But ear protection makes it hard to communicate and isn’t always enough to buffer the pain. Even a supermarket trip is filled with screeching checkout beeps and loudspeaker announcements that pierce right through. 
 
 Though her home is generally quiet, the threat of noise remains. Cindy’s beloved dog, Sadie, sometimes barks when excited. One misstep in the kitchen, and pots clang like cymbals. 
 
 “Having hyperacusis is like walking into a bear’s cave,” Cindy says. “You don’t know what noise is coming your way next. It’s a living nightmare.” 
 
 Cindy’s mother, laid off from a job in the mortgage field, is currently working retail, with a flexible schedule that lets her spend more time with Cindy. 
 
 Cindy Redmond Courtesy of the Redmond family 
 
 “I used to worry that Cindy had the right friends and was taking the right classes to get into college,” Laurie says. “Now I worry that she has no friends. I don’t know how she’s going to finish high school. I have no idea what her future holds.” 
 
 Until Cindy’s injury, the Redmonds had never heard of hyperacusis. 
 
 “Hyperacusis needs attention,” says Laurie. “We need a cure so Cindy can live a normal teenager’s life.”
– What 14-year-old Cindy Redmond calls her "living nightmare" started a year ago at a friend's kitchen table in Delaware. Her friend's stepfather, annoyed that he had to ask Cindy twice to get off her phone, unleashed an air horn into her ears. Nothing has been the same for Cindy since, People reports in a heartbreaking look at a rare hearing disorder called hyperacusis. “Overexposure to sound does not always lead to conventional hearing loss,” one expert says. In Cindy's case, it led to sounds that are too loud and near constant pain. “When I hear a noise, I feel like I’m being stabbed in the ear," Cindy writes on her fundraising page. She also has a constant burning sensation in her ears. Treatment hasn't worked for Cindy, and there is no cure for hyperacusis, also known as noise-induced pain. Noises—and pain—lurk everywhere. Cindy has been unable to return to school; she can't go to the store; and even her home is fraught with the possibility of dog barks and clanging pots. A recent attempt to hang out with friends ended when one of the girls squealed. “Cindy started sobbing from the pain,” her mother, Laurie Redmond, says. “Her friends insisted she was faking." Redmond adds: "She cries herself to sleep. My heart breaks for her.” Cindy wears earplugs or protective earmuffs like you see on airport tarmacs, but those make it hard for her to communicate and don't block out sounds completely. Redmond says they need to find a cure to give her daughter a shot at a normal life. "I worry that she has no friends," Redmond says. "I don’t know how she’s going to finish high school. I have no idea what her future holds.”