24 Yorkshire Evening Post, Wednesday, January 12, 2011 www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk

Health

“ORDERa trainticket, askfor a busticket, ring anyone I didn’tknow, order a meal, read tomy daughter, be the focusof a conversation, introducemyself to anyone, order adrink I wanted at the bar.”That is a list of some of thethings Trevor Hatib couldn’tdo because of his stammer.Since he was a small boy, thedifficulty he had in sayingcertain words had a massiveimpact on his life.As well as all the things he couldn’tdo, there were the incidentsthese restrictions caused– the dental work only doneon his bottom set of teethbecause his orthodontistinstalled an intercom andhe couldn’t use it to get infor another appointment,the eye problem whichcould have led to blindnessbecause he couldn’t call thehospital to tell them howmuch it had worsened.When teaching hisdaughter Stephanie, now13, to count he would missout numbers six and sevenbecause he couldn’t say them.“It was heartwrenching at timeswhen I would hear hercount and go ‘1,2,3,4, 5 and then8’,” he said.“My wife had tosay ‘there’s a 6and 7 in there’.”

Trevor suffered from a stammersince the age of four or five.“I was not really aware of itmyself but my parents wouldalways tell me to slow down.“When I was at home with friendsor my parents, most of the time my

speech was fine but whenI was out asking for

things at the shopsor a bus fare,

that’s whenthere would

be problems.“From avery earlyage I wasawarethere weredifficultiesthere.“In my caseI realised if

I could avoidsaying certainwords, then

not

many people would be aware.”Therefore he became practisedat avoidance techniques, suchas saying where he wanted to goon the bus rather than asking fora 90p ticket, which he knew hewould struggle to say. As an adulthe would always drink a half ofmild – because he could say that.He said it was the fear of stammeringwhich made the situation worse.“You can feel the adrenalinegoing round – that was the fearbecause you are a stammerer.“As a kid I used to walkeverywhere because you don’twant the embarrassment.”Stammering, or stuttering as it isknown in the US, is a communicationproblem which is characterised bydisruptions which can interrupt theflow and timing of speech. Suffererscan repeat sounds, syllables orwords or can stretch out words.“When the pressure is on – jobinterviews, meetings, on the phone topeople I don’t know – you just avoidthose situations because you know

it could go wrong,” Trevor said.“I started working for the

Civil Service 20 years agoand to get the interviewI had to phone up andconfirm I would be

attending. It took

my two days to gee myself up to pickup the phone and say who I was.”Over the years, Trevor’s life wasoften dictated by his stammer.He admits that one of the decidingfactors for buying a particularhouse was that he could say itsaddress, while his wife rang BTto get a phone number which waseasier for him to manage with.However he realised hisspeech was getting worse.“The job I did changed and I wasgoing to meetings where I wouldhave to introduce myself,” he said.“The previous night I would begetting stressed about it.”

EmbarrassedHe describes trying to say hisname, getting more and moreembarrassed and stressed, untilfinally the words come out.In 2008 Trevor, from West Park,Leeds, was treated for an eyecondition which needed an injectioninto his eyeball because of the delay incontacting the hospital for treatment.Then his wife Janice, who had seena programme about how Bradfordsinger Gareth Gates had overcomehis stammer, suggested he neededto take action and Trevor agreedhe couldn’t carry on that way.In March 2009 he went on the

first of five McGuire Programmecourses. The programme teachestechniques to help stammerersto recover, such as breathing in adifferent way to have more controland get into a rhythm of speaking.But the 46-year-old added that thephysical side was only part of it. Alsocrucial to overcome is the fear.“It’s the fear of speaking, where youare having to give a speech and youknow you will have to say wordsthat you cannot say,” he said.“It’s the same as a fear of heights.”To conquer his fear, Trevorconfronted it head on. He changedjobs to become an ICT accountmanager at the Highways Agency inLeeds, a role which involves dealingwith senior managers and directors.He also joined the Leeds CityToastmasters public speaking club,has become a coach for the McGuireprogramme and he is a memberof the White Rose Rotary Club,“It’s a matter of pushing yourcomfort zone,” he explained.“If you keep on pushing yourcomfort zones then your fear goesdown. The only way to deal with thefear is to go in the direction of it.“If I feel there’s a word Icannot say, then I have to goout and say that word.”Thanks to new film The King’sSpeech, stammering has beenbrought to the public’s attention– which Trevor is pleased about.“It’s a disability you don’t seeuntil you open your mouth.“The symptoms that the Kinghad are ones that I had – theavoidance, the fear.”With publicity around the movieincreasing awareness of stammering,Trevor now wants to encourageother people to get help and to beassured that things can improve.For him, many things have changed– being able to read to his daughter,ring a taxi or order a meal.“The programme is not a cure so thereare times when my speech is bad andyou have to work at it,” he said.“But you cannot put a price onbeing able to pick the words youwant to say and then just sayingthem as opposed to having to thingfour of five sentences ahead, workout what words you cannot say andworking out alternative words,reworking the sentences so theymake sense. It’s exhausting.”● For more information, log on tothe British Stammering Associationwebsite at www.stammering.org.TheLeeds City Toastmasters meets at7pm on the first and third Thursday ofthe month at the Crowne Plaza Hotel,Wellington Street, Leeds. More onthe McGuire programme is at www.mcguireprogramme.com.

katie.baldwin@ypn.co.uk

No longer lostIt’s a condition which affects 750,000 people in the UK yet it is still littleunderstood and often mocked. As a new film brings the issue of stammeringto the big screen, Katie Baldwin heard about a Leeds man’s determinationnot to let his stammer rule his life

INSPIRATION:Gareth Gates

THE story of how an unconventional speechtherapist helped King George VI with hisstammer, The King’s Speech is set to be a boxoffice smash.Days after its release, the film is topping the UKfilm charts and is also being tipped for Oscarsuccess.Colin Firth takes the title role as Prince Albert,who isn’t expecting to ascend to the throne.But when his brother Edward, then King, decidesto abdicate because of his relationship withWallis Simpson, Albert becomes King George VI.However he must tackle his stammer and thefilm tells the true story of the king’s friendshipwith his Australian speech therapist LionelLogue, played by Geoffrey Rush.Director Tom Hooper previously made theDamned United, about Brian Clough’s shortreign at the club.His latest movie was partly shot in Leeds and italso opened last year’s Leeds International FilmFestival.Charity the British Stammering Association(BSA) has welcomed the “realistic depiction ofthe frustration and the fear of speaking faced bypeople who stammer on a daily basis”, especiallyColin Firth’s portrayal of the King’s stammer.They also say the film offers a golden opportunityto talk about stammering and issues around it.

TRUE STORY: Colin Firthas King George VI inThe King’s Speech

Raising awareness on the big screen