A Hale Barns man whose life was blighted by a stammer for almost a quarter of a century has finally learned to control it – in just a matter of days.

Khashif Khan, 28, can pinpoint the moment his stutter began.

“My mum was having my youngest brother and me being five years old, I had no idea what was going on, I only knew my mum was in hospital and I was naturally scared,” said the network engineer.

“When I went in to see her in the hospital I tried to say, ‘mum, what’s wrong?’, but I just couldn’t, I was struggling to say mum. That was one of my earliest memories.”

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Khashif Khan has learned to control his stutter thanks to the McGuire Programme

Khashif said his parents were told he would most likely grow out of – but this wasn’t the case.

When he reached high school, Khashif attended speech therapy. Although his speech would improve during sessions, it didn’t have a lasting effect.

“I was never taught how to deal with the stutter outside of speech therapy,” he said.

“It really affected high school. I couldn’t really talk much so trying to make friends was difficult to say the least. I am not a shy person and I was being held back by my stutter.”

Things did get better when Khashif moved on to Trafford College but when he got a job in IT, he found himself behind a computer all day answering emails. This set him back further as his interaction with people became very limited.

But all that changed when Khashif stumbled across a documentary about Pop Idol singer Gareth Gates called ‘Stop my Stutter’.

The documentary followed Gates through the McGuire Programme, which helps sufferers control their impediment with breathing techniques, and an inspired Khashif decided to enrol too.

He signed up to a five day intensive course in Manchester last year – and it turned out to be a life-changing experience.

Videos from the course show that in the space of just two days, Khashif went from ‘hardly getting a word out’ to standing atop a podium in St Ann’s Square, in Manchester, and telling his story to a crowd of strangers.

“They really push you, not just on your speech but confidence too – it made such a huge difference,” said Khashif.

“I wasn’t nervous about speaking in public, it was nice to finally show my true self.”

A year on and signs of Khashif’s debilitating stutter are negligible. And he wants others in a similar predicament to know they don’t have to suffer in silence.

“There is hope, you don’t have to be stuck with a stutter for the rest of your life,” he said.

“I no longer have the fear of going up to someone to just speak to them. Before, I would avoid going up to a shopkeeper and asking the price of something. Simple questions like that I don’t even think about any more and it feels great.”