Rob Ellis

I have stammered since I was a child, and have attended various speech therapy programmes over the years without success.

I attended my first McGuire Programme course with a degree of scepticism. The programme is tough and requires discipline, however like all things worth having, you get out what you put in.

There is no ‘magic pill’ to cure the affliction of stammering, but the McGuire Programme has allowed me to gain control of my speech and work towards being the person I always wanted to be. I am no longer a prisoner to my stammer, which feels great!

I have been on the programme since 2007 and have done things I once thought impossible including a radio interview and doing a reading. Even everyday activities like speaking on the phone, ordering food at a restaurant as well as just saying my name, are now no longer experiences I dread but ones I enjoy and now actively seek.

Backed up by an incredible and unique support group that brings together all kinds of people from various backgrounds, as a primary coach, I now want to help give back to a programme that has given me so much.