Catherine Sheridan

I can now truthfully say that I’m the person I always wanted to be with the help of the McGuire Programme and its back up support. I was hiding behind layers avoidance such as avoiding people and speaking situations that my confidence and outgoing personality didn’t come across.

From an early age, I became an expert at hiding my stammer, from changing my words to using filler words, to ‘forgetting’ what I wanted to say. I struggled through primary school. I remember knowing the exact time of day the teacher would begin reading a novel we were studying for English in which he would pick people out to read. I would purposely avoid being the one who was picked out by going to the bathroom and waiting there for 5/10 minutes. Daily tricks and avoidances like that became habitual and part of my normal daily routine.

It was at the end of my first year in university that I made the decision to join the McGuire Programme. I approached my parents with the idea, and they were extremely happy for me to go. Although in their eyes, I didn’t really have a stammer I just got stuck on the odd word. But little did they know the inner turmoil I faced on a daily basis. That one decision to join the programme I firmly believe has shaped my life since and will continue to do so. The freedom of finally being able to admit to myself and others that I have a stammer but it’s okay because I’m now working hard to overcome it was an exhilarating moment.

I have done so many things I wouldn’t have dreamed possible since then and met a lot of inspirational people on the way. My attitude to life now is anything is possible if you want it enough.