Profile of Nigel Hardy

Nigel is now a recovering stammerer, which he has achieved after two years of intensive speech therapy. Despite his difficulties he has managed to build a successful business over the last ten years. This is all the more to his credit as in his line customer contact is fundamental.

Nigel has stammered for most of his life since early childhood. Leaving school meant finding a job, but finding a suitable job was very difficult as most admin posts required telephone ability, a thing which many stammerers find nearly impossible, as the stammer intensities in difficult situations. Nigel was no exception to this! He would rather have written a letter or travelled a few miles to see the person than phone them.

After a few years working in various posts, Nigel felt the need to find his independence and set up his own contract cleaning business. This move was very satisfying for him as he did not have to communicate with very many people working in areas where people were not around, and his mother would take the pressure off by handling all his phone calls, something which often made him feel inadequate.

In desperation to overcome his difficulty, Nigel was referred for intensive Speech Therapy locally a couple of years ago, a time when his stammer was so severe he could barely put two words together without a long protracted pause. Therapy, focussed on reteaching him how to speak, how to relax, control breath flow and, most importantly build self-confidence by learning to accept his difficulty. From this he went on to a course run by a Speech & Language Therapist with Sutton College of Liberal arts concentrating on assertiveness skills under the heading, "Speaking with confidence for adults who stammer"

Having put a lot of time and energy into overcoming his stammer Nigel now enjoys day-to-day conversations that we all take for granted and has put his new skill into reorganising his business. He is expanding into providing an Ironing Service where he enjoys the role of organising, meeting new people and getting to know his customers.

"I'm very grateful" he says "to the professionals who have helped me to restructure my speaking techniques, without their commitment I would not be enjoying my new freedom."

"There is a lot more public awareness of speech disfluency nowadays and help is at hand. Anyone can ask their local health centre to see their local Specialist Speech & Language Therapist. G.P. referral is not essential. Wimbledon is fortunate to have this service funded by the NHS. Also advice of where to go can be obtained from the British Stammering Association. The BSA is a charity run by stammerers and does excellent work at raising public awareness"