Helping to find a new voice

Alex Todd now hopes to become a McGuire coach after his own success

As he answers a telephone, asks for directions, or greets a neighbour in the street, the voice tells him these are everyday tasks he should not be capable of completing.

Yet he is no longer sweating, feeling sick or trembling with fear as he used to when he opens his mouth to speak.

In fact, as the father-of-four leans back in his armchair, he is talking steadily, smoothly and confidently about how, after 50 years of living with a debilitating speech defect, he has finally found help thanks to a ground-breaking programme endorsed by the singer, and well-known stammerer, Gareth Gates, pictured below left.

"It's like there is something always telling me I should not be speaking as well as this though," the retired psychiatric charge nurse says.

"It reminds me I should be stammering - I am a stammerer."

This time last year the 55-year-old from Gorebridge was indeed stammering, terribly so. The most simple of tasks, such as saying his name when asked or ordering a hamburger in McDonald's, were usually beyond him. Giving presentations at work were painful experiences he did everything he could to avoid, while his wife Isabel always stepped in to fill the gaps during awkward moments when they were out in public.

Since beginning the "beyond stammering" McGuire Programme in February 2010 though, the last year has been filled with countless achievements for Alex, including stints at public speaking, which have boosted his confidence in ways he never thought possible.

"I have found a new voice," he smiles. "In fact, my wife often tells me I don't stop talking now."

The movie The King's Speech, in which actor Colin Firth, above right, stars as King George VI struggling to overcome a stammer, has thrown the issue into the spotlight. And Alex is keen to raise awareness of the condition which blights the lives of around 66 million people worldwide.

Agreeing to be interviewed is something he would never have done previously, a challenge to put him far out of his comfort zone. Yet it is one he more than rises to, never stammering once in the hour-long discussion.

It's thanks to the McGuire Programme, which focuses on breathing techniques in a bid to overcome stammering, which he saw in a newspaper article his mum had cut out for him. After watching her son battle a stammer all of his life - and fail to beat it despite many stints in speech therapy - she was determined to help.

"I thought I had nothing to lose so I took a look at the website," explains Alex. "It cost about 700 to join the course, which is quite a lot of money, but the results have been amazing."

Run by people who have a stammer who have also found "a new voice" through the course, Alex set out on his first four-day therapy stay in February, which was held in a hotel in Wigan.

The gruelling trip began with him being recorded in front of the coaches and a hall full of other stammerers who were desperate for help.

"It put me right on the spot," says Alex, a grandfather-of-three. "But it let the coaches see just what we were all capable of. I found it very stressful, but I felt the same as everyone else there - we were all stammerers."

After that, he was shown the art of costal breathing, which involves retraining the diaphragm in a way commonly done by opera singers. He was discouraged from phoning home until the final day in case he relapsed to his old ways.

During the course Alex was taken out with a coach and encouraged to speak to as many members of the public as he could, asking for directions or the time, before standing on a soap box in the middle of Wigan's busiest shopping area to give a short speech to passers-by.

"I felt as though I was on cloud nine," he laughs. "When I eventually phoned home, my wife said she noticed a difference straight away. There were a few tears shed."

Nobody knows why people develop a stammer and while there is no known cure for it there are ways it can be controlled.

For Alex, it's been there for as long as he can remember, from primary school to adulthood. His father also suffered from a stammer but it disappeared when he hit his 20s, something his family always hoped would happen for Alex, but didn't.

Today Alex is quick to point out he will always be a stammerer, he is merely a "recovering" one.

"I always remember how terrified I was of having to read in class at school," he explains. "I could never put my hand up to answer or ask a question either. I was never bullied, but I was terrified - sweaty and nervous - of speaking in front of a class.

"I did well at school, but I've always felt this affliction held me back. Originally I wanted to be a PE teacher, but I could never have spoken to a class could I? I was given an interview for the police, but I think it became very obvious it would never have worked. Eventually I started training as a psychiatric nurse, which was very nervewracking. I managed to became a senior charge though."

Until he took early retirement last year, Alex had forged a successful career for himself, yet always dreaded presentations to his clinical team, often writing them out but asking someone else to do the delivery.

Now he smiles as he explains he has given many presentations at three other McGuire Programme courses and hopes to become one of its coaches, like Gareth Gates, in the near future.

"I have to work hard on the techniques I've been shown," he says. "Every morning I do a 20-minute warm-up and while some of it is becoming second nature, some of it I have further to go with, but if this is as good as it gets for me, then great.

"On my wedding day, I couldn't even say my vows. I managed the "I do", but that was all. I had no intention of giving a speech, but I was actually encouraged to do one by one of the waitresses, so I did, which I've always been glad about.

"There is hope out there for stammerers.

"I have spoken about the McGuire Programme because that is something that has worked for me, but the stammer will always be there, I have to be on my guard all the time."

The mcguire programme

The McGuire Programme was founded in 1994 by US stammerer Dave McGuire.

Its aim is to deliver practical training devised to "promote recovery" from stammering through breathing techniques.

It is a "mutual self-help organisation" run by stammerers who have had success in controlling their speech defect by attending courses run across the world by the programme.

Famous faces who have controlled their stammers through the McGuire Programme include Wet Wet Wet guitarist Graeme Duffin and popstar Gareth Gates, now a leading coach.

Other well-known people to have battled a stammer throughout history include Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe and Bruce Willis.

Open-days and courses for the McGuire Programme run regularly in the UK, many of them are in Scotland and Northern England.

For more information visit www.mcguireprogramme.com or contact Iain Mutch on 0191-413 9100 or at [email protected]