Bromsgrove father calls for more support for stammer treatment

Jon Hubbard was once know as Shaun because he struggled to say his own name

A man has called for more to be done to help people living with a stammer.

Jon Hubbard, 44, from Bromsgrove said having a stammer for more than 30 years has "cast a shadow" over every aspect of his life.

Tasks such as shopping or ringing the doctor's surgery for an appointment often prove to be challenging, he said.

Stammering is when someone repeats, prolongs or gets stuck when trying to say sounds or words.

The condition was first detected by Mr Hubbard, who works in IT, when he was nine-years-old and reading to the class at school.

At one point, he was known as Shaun instead of John as he struggled to properly say his own name.

He said: "I couldn't get my name out, Shaun was a similar sounding word so I'd use that - but that's the extent you go to."

The breaking point came when he was unable to say his daughters' names one day when collecting them from primary school.

"It was so degrading," he told BBC Hereford and Worcester.

"I had to pluck up the courage to do something different rather than hiding away."

According to the NHS, one in 12 young children go through a phase of stammering. While two in three children go on to speak fluently, it is estimated that the condition affects one in 50 adults.

"If people wear glasses, you know they're short sighted, if they have a hearing aid you know they're hard of hearing, speech is different," he said.

It has been reported that there are an estimated 20,000 speech therapist jobs currently unfilled across the country.

The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists say 23% of posts in both the public and private sector are empty.

Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust said: "Our Adult Speech and Language Therapy Service provides assessment and treatment for adults aged 16+ with communication and/or swallowing difficulties."

"We are based in clinics and community hospitals across the two counties."