I’ve recorded my doomed voice to talk to grandkids
A MAN losing his voice to motor neurone disease has recorded himself speaking – so he can “talk” to his grandchildren in the future.
Tony Plant, 62, has digitally recorded 1,200 sentences so he can communicate with loved ones via a computer-generated voice, which sounds similar to his.
He hopes the process will preserve his true voice for his granddaughters, Charlotte, two, and Chloe, three.
Former bricklayer Tony began noticing symptoms of the muscle wasting condition four years ago when his speech became slurred.
The symptoms worsened with a loss of co-ordination. Then Tony and his wife Janet, 58, received his diagnosis three months ago.
Speaking about the importance of “banking” his voice, Tony said: “I feel useless at most things. I can’t move but I will still be able to talk to my grandchildren.
“They will be able to recognise it as grandad’s voice, not just a robotic voice.
“It will make a huge difference to me when my voice has gone.”
On the recording process, Tony, of Clitheroe, Lancashire, said: “You have to go to a totally quiet room and record 1,200 sentences in a monotone voice.
Amazing
“You can do about 30 to 50 sentences and then you get tired – it took me about three weeks to work through them all.
“It is a bit of a strange process as some of the sentences are from films or books. They take your sentences down to single letters and rejoin them. It’s amazing how it works – it’s a computer generated voice but it is my voice.”
Tony, a keen fly fisherman who ran two angling shops, believes that if he can still communicate his condition will be more bearable.
He said: “I have some bad moments but between us we won’t let it defeat us. I might not be able to walk into a river but I can still fly fish from a boat. You have to try to be positive – there is always someone worse off than you.”