TV stammer show was ‘the best experience of my life’
FOR most people, saying your wedding vows to the person you love is an experience to remember forever.
But for 24-year-old Jessica Davies, she wanted to get married on a tiny boat so she wouldn’t have to say her vows in front of everyone – because of her stammer.
The photographer and beauty blogger said whenever she and her fiance went out for food, he would have to order her food for her.
But having taken part in a television show where she went through a radical course to help her with her speech, Jessica is now planning to say her vows in front of her wedding guests.
“It started when I was a child,” Jessica said. “I couldn’t speak until I was four years old. When I was younger, I used to punch myself in the face and pull on my hair. I would just get more frustrated that I couldn’t speak.
“It made me feel really low about myself. The teachers would all tell my mum I would need extra help, but I was just very shy and very quiet.”
It was during her time at school that Jessica started to realise she had a problem with her speech, and tried to get help.
“The teachers could see something wasn’t right,” she said. “Someone came to the school to speak to me and from that I had speech therapy which didn’t ever work for me.”
But Jessica, from Beddau, near Pontypridd, was given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take part in television show School for Stammerers, which will be shown on ITV next week.
She and five other people with a stammer went through a four-day intensive course called The McGuire Programme.
The intensive and emotionally-charged residential course is run by former stammerers, using physical and psychological techniques and has already transformed the lives of many – including pop tar Gareth Gates.
Over a four-day intensive course, which ran from 7am to 10pm each day, the students can talk to nobody but their coaches. They can have no contact with their loved ones. And within 48 hours they had to talk to complete strangers using the techniques they had learnt.
“We always had to start every session with saying our own name. Before the show, I could not even say my name,” said Jessica.
“You had to talk on the phone which was something I had struggled with. And you had to stand on a soap box in Trafalgar Square and do a speech. We also had to speak to 100 strangers and we had to tell them that we had a stammer.”
But Jessica said taking part didn’t just help her speech – it changed her life. “It was the best experience of my life,” she said. “It was so nice to meet other people who have a stutter where they understand where you’re coming from.
“The show has completely changed my life. I quit my job in retail and now am self-employed as a photographer.
“I felt before the show that I had a stutter and that was it. But I got pushed to breaking point and that’s what you want to have really.”
One thing that Jessica is now looking forward to is getting married.
She has been dating fiance Josh Yendle, 24, for seven and a half years and now hopes that their wedding, planned for around their 10th anniversary in July 2020, can be everything she has always dreamed of.
“Before the show, I wanted to get married in the middle of the ocean on a tiny boat so I didn’t have to say my vows in front of everyone,” she said.
“It means the world that I can say my vows in front of everyone instead of stuttering.
“Josh has been so happy for me. When we go out for food, he doesn’t have to order my food for me anymore. He’s quite relieved!
“He’s really proud that I have my voice now. I feel like a totally different person.”