There are times when stammering has its lighter moments. Cherry Hughes recalls the credit she was given for a block that didn't happen.

I stammered quite severely until my mid twenties and, as speech and language therapy was not available, I started to work on my speech then, reading the research and practising hard so that I developed more fluency. Over the next twenty years my stammer may have seemed to any observer to have disappeared, but I knew differently, and in certain situations I was aware that I could block.

One of those situations arose a few years back, when I had the honour to lead an awards evening attended by young people, their parents and guests: about 2,000 people in all. The main speaker was the local MP, who was at that time a member of the Cabinet. In spite of his rise to eminence, this MP worked hard locally to impress constituents with his accessibility and friendliness and his wife, agent, and the rest of the team were involved in supporting this image. As this was an auspicious occasion, representatives of the two opposition parties were also present in the audience.

When I introduced the MP I knew already that his first name began with a soft letter that I could say without any problems, and the speech that I planned to deliver I had practised and felt confident of. My only worry was that I did not know the first name of his wife and would find that out on the evening itself. Unfortunately for me it began with the letter that in all circumstances I blocked on. When it came to pronouncing her first name, I avoided the blocking by introducing her as Mrs____, as their surname presented me with no difficulties at all.

I thought that nobody had noticed, but I had underestimated the observation powers of those who served politicians, particularly at this time, just weeks away from a general election. After the awards ceremony, the MP's agent descended on me to complain vigorously that my formality in the introduction of the MP's wife had undermined their friendly and informal image in front of many constituents. I reeled a little under that statement and was promptly confronted by the two opposition party's candidates who were delighted that I had appeared to have done this. Little did any of them know that all this so-called political contrivance was in fact simply a difficulty with a hard consonant! Interestingly, although the MP was re-elected, his massive majority was lowered considerably. Was that just coincidence?

If you have an amusing experience of stammering, Speaking Out would like to hear from you.

From the Spring 2003 edition of Speaking Out