For years, Telford woman Debbie Appleby was barely able to speak. Like pop star Gareth Gates, she suffered from a terrible stammer. But her life has now been transformed . . . Ben Bentley reports.

For more than 15 years Debbie Appleby barely spoke. A few days ago she stood up in the middle of a busy town centre and addressed thousands of shoppers with a speech.

“Until last week I could not even say my name,” says the 31-year-old from Lightmoor, Telford.

“And now you can’t shut me up!”

Debbie, you see, is a stutterer. Or was until she went on the same course that stammering pop star Gareth Gates followed, entitled the McGuire Programme which addresses breathing techniques and helps sufferers overcome the condition.

After four days she is talking almost normally. At her home she straps a leather belt across her chest and, slowly but very deliberately, says: “Excuse me, I have to do this – it helps me to breathe properly.”

She explains how being a stammerer has cast a shadow over her life and how she would adopt ways to avoid having to speak in public.

“I never used the phone and always got my husband Wayne to do the calls. If we were going out to a pub or restaurant I would never order food or drinks, because of the fear of people staring or laughing. I’d leave the ordering to other people. But it does not help because the fear builds up more and it makes your stammer worse.”

Talking is the enemy of a stammerer, so it’s no wonder Gareth Gates is more comfortable singing because his stammer disappears. Debbie’s father Michael discovered exactly the same phenomenon in his daughter.

“I would ask her something and get her to sing the answer,” he says.

“I’m a terrible singer,” adds Debbie, “but I would do it.”

The condition, which is triggered by stress and a lack of confidence, first became apparent soon after Debbie started secondary school, when she was 13.

“It might have been brought on by stress or bullying,” she says.

“Before that I can remember taking part in plays and being very confident, not having a stutter or a stammer.

“I was overweight at school and with having a stutter as well I did get bullied a lot. I did feel very lonely, had no friends – apart from one best friend who stood by me – and felt very embarrassed.

“In class we were asked to read out loud and my fear would start to build up. I’d try to speak but the words did not come out. Everybody laughed and I’d feel myself welling up, but tried not to cry. I was extremely shy and I did not speak if I didn’t have to.”

At 15 she went to see a speech therapist but found new techniques hard to adopt. Now in denial of her condition, she stopped going to her sessions altogether.

Despite being withdrawn, she soldiered through school. Next stage: the real world. At the age of 17 Debbie attended an interview for a job as a care assistant.

“My dad came with me to say my name because stutterers have a fear of saying their own name,” Debbie explains.

“Your name is the first thing you have to say and the fear builds up about having to say it.”

Fortunately she got the job and her employers were very patient and understanding. Her next job on the checkout at Sainsbury’s, however, would end in tears.

“At first it was okay but somebody laughed at me and it shot my confidence right down and I left. I stood up and had a go at her because I felt so angry that an adult could laugh at me. I tried not to cry but a lady came up to me afterwards and said ‘well done’, and then I did cry.”

Today she is a care worker in Newport and at the end of last year happened upon a magazine article about the McGuire Technique, which helped transform so many stammerers’ lives. With the support of her family she booked herself on the course.

Debbie found herself in a room full of stammerers, surprised at how many were living with the debilitating condition, just like her. Even supposedly confident people can fall victim to stuttering, which is said to be triggered by stress or a lack of confidence. Famous stammerers have included Shrewsbury’s own Charles Darwin, scientist Sir Isaac Newton and Oasis star Noel Gallagher.

But on the course, breathing techniques were practiced along with preparations for stressful everyday situations and role play.

It was after this that she felt so confident “that I decided to stand up in the middle of Swindon and make a speech,” she says.

“And last week I went into Sainsbury’s and did a disclosure over the tannoy, telling people that I have a stutter and I went on the McGuire Programme and that I was now a recovering stammerer.

“All the shop came to a standstill and everybody clapped. It was such a sense of achievement.”

Debbie’s world has changed beyond recognition, and now she’s making up for lost talking time.

“I’ve not cooked a meal since I came back from the course,” she says with a smile.

“We’ve been eating out – with me ordering. And I’m on the phone all the time. The phone bills are going to be massive.”

Overcoming her stammer has re-ignited an old ambition too.

“Before I went on the course I wanted to apply to be a Special for the police force, but I did not have the confidence,” says Debbie.

“But now I am going to apply for it.”