TRANSCRIPT OF A PRESENTATION, BY ALAN BADMINGTON, TO ...

duly gave my name as ‘Alan Badmington’ but, as we all know, it was not
recorded under my correct identity. I had a lot of explaining to do.
Success followed success, and I could feel my whole self-image changing.
I began to believe in myself; I did not have the negative feelings of selfdoubt
and this positivity created a chain reaction within my hexagon –
resulting in a positive effect in my speech.
During my course, I had been encouraged to engage in conversation with
complete strangers in the street, and one day I spoke to nearly 300 people.
I told many that I was a recovering stutterer and was amazed at the interest,
and words of encouragement, that I received. Quite apart from the fact
that I was accepting myself as a stutterer, I was also desensitising the
situation. I began believing that I could speak to total strangers about my
speech problem, (or any subject) and my negative perception that they
would be embarrassed, or might ridicule me, was replaced with a positive
perception.
Things took a dramatic change in August 2000 when I travelled to the USA
to help set up the first American programme. My role was to publicise the
forthcoming event by telling my story. As I flew alone across the Atlantic
to San Francisco, I wondered what I had let myself in for. Only three
months earlier (after more than half a century of stuttering) I still had
difficulty in saying my name. Yet now, I was thousands of miles from
home and knew that I would be required to introduce myself to a multitude
of strangers.
I literally knocked on the door of every newspaper office, radio station and
TV studio in the corridor running from San Francisco to Northern Nevada.
I went for two weeks and stayed for six weeks – what an adventure!
During that time I transformed my stuttering hexagon ten thousand fold.
For fifty years it had been negative – that was now to change permanently.
I did things I, hitherto, thought were impossible.
You cannot imagine the immense satisfaction I gained from speaking to
every section of the media.