I find it hard talking to girls but at least my stammer stops me coming out with cheesy chat-up lines
TEEN OVERCAME LATEST HURDLE IN HIS LIFE
SHY Musharaf Asghar is famous for beating a severe stammer on TV’s Educating Yorkshire in his first end of term speech.
Four million watched the Channel 4 show and seven million more have viewed the moving scene on YouTube.
That success brought him a new challenge – girls.
Musharaf, 19, who likes to be known as Mushy, said: “Now on Twitter, I get a lot of female attention. Girls are saying, ‘You’re so cute’, ‘I’d like to meet you’. In the high street I’d heard a girl scream, ‘Hi Mushy’. But I didn’t know what to say.”
With the self-deprecation millions love him for, he added: “At least my stammer has stopped me making cheesy chat up lines.”
Mushy’s teacher at Thornhill Community Academy in Dewsbury – where the series was filmed – helped him overcome his stutter by getting him to speak while listening to music through headphones.
But the trick picked up from the Oscar-winning film, The King’s Speech, about King George VI’s stammer, was only a temporary fix.
It helped Mushy get through his English GCSE oral exam, but in real life, the teen struggled. He’d never been on a date. So TV offered a helping hand.
Mushy went on Channel 4’s First Dates, the show which invites couples to meet for blind dates and films them unfolding in all their cringe-inducing glory.
Mushy said: “I had never really tried to speak to girls, I would go out of my way to avoid it. “I thought it wasn’t for me. “First Dates is the most terrifying thing I could think of. I kept saying no.” But the teen is nothing if not brave. He added: “Then I thought, ‘I do want to meet someone one day, I do want to marry. If I don’t go through with it, how will I ever explore this?’”
So the teenager decided to risk it – and the result makes for heart-melting TV viewing all over again.
On tonight’s show, we watch him meet 20-year-old Salina, who is on her first date, too.
Mushy’s former teacher,Mr Burton is there to lend support when they met at the bar. He said: “As soon as I sat at
the bar I realised where I was.” laughs Mushy. “How on earth was I going to deal with it? I was so nervous. And having Mr Burton there was a bit awkward.”
Salina takes meeting her date with his former teacher admirably. She is pretty nervous herself.
Mushy says: “When Salina arrived I liked her, I thought she was attractive, and so it was hard to speak up.
“But I could see it was hard for her to open up, and so I was trying to make sure she felt OK.
“It was odd sitting there with the cameras but she was really good at making eye contact, which I know is hard for people. She was very patient.”
Since the age of five, Mushy’s ability to speak has been hijacked by his severe stammer, which started after he suffered a bad asthma attack. He said: “Doctors have said the stammer could be psychological.” Young Mushy was distraught when the words would no longer come. He said: “I remember crying, my mum trying to help me calm down.” His dad, a taxi driver who owns a restaurant, and his four siblings were patient but at school he entered a long tunnel of isolation. Mushy said: “I had a hard time. It was difficult to make friends. Kids didn’t want to hang around long enough to hear me speak.” To ward off bullies, he tried humour but they still targeted him. He said: “Kids called me the DJ – they said, ‘You wouldn’t need equipment’. It’s funny now but at the time it was hard to hear.” As a practising Muslim, Mushy is keen to marry one day but the need to tackle his love life has been weighing on him. He said: “We believe we are made in pairs, so I’m half at the moment.” ●Celebrity First Dates, tonight at 9pm on Channel 4.