Stop My Stutter - BBC Three

Following on from my previous blog, Ive done something about my life and one thing that Ive done is enrolled on a speech therapy course called the McGuire Programme.

This speech therapy program was going to be televised on BBC Three which was a huge thing for myself as it was going to give people an insight into my life and realize the struggles that Ive gone through and how I've managed to beat it. The program was called 'Stop My Stutter' and was run by Pop Idol runner up Gareth Gates who also suffered from a stammer which he has now overcome from attending the speech therapy courses.
I enrolled on the course as not only was a chance to get on TV, but I felt this was the last chance to do something as I felt that having a stammer was holding me back from achieving the things that I want to do in life.

For those of you that watched the program on the night of the TV schedule on BBC Three, you will have seen myself and fellow stammerers beating our stammer. The way this was done by carrying out techniques which was drilled to us over the 4 day intensive course and was followed by an over whelming leaving speech which nearly had me in tears as this was the best day of my life to date.

Following the TV appearance, I've had an overwhelming positive feedback through tweets from people who tuned into the show and mentioned how brave and inspiring I was and how well I've done to overcome my stammer, even all the way from Hong Kong! It just goes to show that you will only get somewhere if you put the hard work in. I've also done a few articles which I will blog and been stopped in the streets a few times which is something I aint used too :)

I also want to say well done to the other new stammerers on the show who also beat their stammer and well on their way to achieving things in life that they never wished of dreaming.

Mohammed Shafi

The Silent Life Of A Stammer

Where do I start? Im only 14+ years too late to express my feelings right? I thought Id write this blog on behalf of all the stammerer's out there to make people aware of the struggles a stammerer goes through in our daily life's.

Step in to my shoes for a moment...

I'm a twenty year old down to earth, humble, easy going lad from Bradford and currently studying to be a Sports Physiotherapist at the University of Bedfordshire. If there was a degree in stammer right now, I would probably achieve a first class degree in it. I wake up a stammerer, I live my daily life as a stammerer and I go to sleep knowing I stammer. Try living with that? I cant remember when I first stammered, but then again, I cant remember the day I could speak fluently before I occurred this disease.. and theres not a day that goes by where I dream of speaking fluently again.

I am who I am because of my stammer. Ever since a young age, I would get the general people who would laugh at me, make jokes and even get into fights with people to who take it too far. why? Step into my shoes and you'll know what it feels like to have a stammer! 

What about how I feel? These days, people only think about themselves, or I see people giving other people support. What about me? I don’t want to sound like I’m the most the important person in the world, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask how I feel once in a while. I can’t remember the last time someone said that to me, not even my own parents. If my parents loved me that much, they obviously would have asked me by now.

I just want someone to hug me tight and tell me everything will be alright.. one day.

It was only a few years ago that I started to feel suicidal because it has got to the stage where I felt I was being accepted in life as a stammerer and having this condition would get me no where. So is there any point in living? I prayed to God to take my life away every night, crying at the same time. Even on the odd occasion thought of overdosing myself and looking on the internet for other ways...

What I want to get out of this blog is to tell you, the normal people who dont stammer, how it really affects stammerers such as myself to live with this condition and why you should take it serious as you are very lucky this wasnt you!

To be continued...