A woman has said overcoming her stutter at the age of 53 has “changed my whole life”. 

Lunchtime Live listener Martina had a stutter for as long as she could remember and it has clouded her earliest memories.

“When I was about four or five in school, I couldn’t say my name, I couldn’t read out loud,” she said.

“Reading was an absolute nightmare for me. I would stand up but the words just wouldn’t come out of my mouth.

“Even at this early age, I felt really ashamed.”

At the time, Martina worried that she was “different from everybody else” and felt scared people would laugh at her.

To cope, she tried to avoid speaking as much as possible.

“The more I avoided stuttering, the higher my fear got,” she said.

“I didn’t actually help myself by not letting people hear me stutter.

“I often wondered if I did stutter and let people hear me stutter what my life would have been like but, again, I was just always ashamed that I had a stutter and I just carried on avoiding words, sounds, speaking in situations.”

As she grew older, she worried that not being able to speak without stuttering would impact her career prospects and she felt very unmotivated in the classroom.

“In school, I never really studied because I didn’t see any future for myself,” she said.

“I left school when I was 18 in 1975 and I put my name down for a college, I was going to do shorthand and typing.

“I didn’t actually go to college because I was thinking, ‘Sure, if I get a job in an office, I won’t be able to use the phones.’”

Turning point

Things were so bad that Martina freely admits there was a point that she “hated” herself and it was only in 2010 that things started to change.

She was watching an interview with singer Gareth Gates and was intrigued to hear he too once had a stutter.

Martina learnt that he had completed the McGuire Programme speech improvement course and at the age of 53 decided she would “give it a shot” as well.

“This was in 2010, 14 years ago, and now look at me - I’m on the radio talking about stuttering,” she said.

“It changed my whole life.”

Change took a lot of “courage and time and effort” but it has been worthwhile.

For anyone out there who has a stutter, Martina has a simple message.

“[Don’t] suffer like I did,” she said.

“I’m not saying you have to do a speech programme but don’t suffer like I did. Don’t hide the fact you have a stutter.

“Don’t avoid words and sounds like I did - seek help.”

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Main image: Martina.