Seeing Brian overcome his stammer filled me with professional pride

The first thing I noticed was his mum: the concerned way she looked at him as they entered my room and took their seats, the way she shifted uncomfortably when I, a speech and language therapist, asked Brian* if he knew why he was here, the way her shoulders tensed as I smiled expectantly at her teenage son.

Then, as he attempted to answer, his whole body suddenly jerked forward until his head was almost banging against his knees. I heard no words. I checked the referral information discreetly, shuffling quickly through papers and thinking angrily that the GP who’d referred him was completely off the mark. Is this a child with Tourette’s or a neurological disorder?

The letter stated “boy has a mild stammer – please advise”. After a few painful seconds, Brian finally managed to force out a “No!” and I realised that the GP was both right and wrong: yes, he had a stammer, but it wasn’t mild.

During that emotionally-charged first session, I learned that Brian had developed the stammer as a young child. At first his parents didn’t really notice; their health visitor and well-meaning relatives reassured them it would probably disappear over time. After a year, however, they noticed that Brian would sometimes blink repeatedly, as well as stammer. Then other movements began, some of which disappeared only to be replaced by others.

Now a teenager, almost every word was a struggle for Brian, but more distressing were the secondary movements I had just seen. He was doing well in school but had always refused to talk about his stammer. His mum said, heartbreakingly, that it was like his stammer didn’t exist if nobody mentioned it, so nobody did. As she shared all this with me, Brian sat silently, his eyes focused on the nursery rhymes poster on the wall. Occasionally he’d glance in my direction, looking for a reaction. I tried desperately not to give the wrong one.

The only other response I saw from Brian during that first session was a halfhearted nod, confirming that he would come back the following week.

I felt intrigued and daunted at the same time. What had brought Brian to this point and what was the best way to help him?

He came back to see me many times over the next few years, and gradually the wall of silence around his speaking difficulties began to crumble. A large part of therapy sessions for teenagers who stammer is to be more open about the fact that the stammer exists, and this was the most difficult part for Brian and his family. We did some work on his breathing and technique, but by far the biggest challenge was enabling Brian to accept his stammer.

Having worked in the NHS for more than 20 years, I know there are some moments that stay with you long after they happen, moments you remember to remind yourself of why you do what you do. One such moment was the day Brian came for his session, now aged almost 16, smiling and clearly itching to tell me something. His mum was with him, unusually. He told me (with a stammer, but no secondary movements) that he had spoken in front of his year group and teachers about his stammer, as part of his GCSE English oral examination.

Then I noticed his mum again; she had an air of optimism about her, a sense that everything was finally going to be ok. Gone was the anxiety that can only be seen in the eyes of a worried mother as she told me that Brian had also got himself a weekend job; he’d started at one end of the street and asked, with his stammer, in all the local shops until one agreed to give him a chance.

What courage. I was so proud of him and so grateful to that shop owner for giving him that chance.

*Not his real name

If you would like to contribute to our Blood, sweat and tears series, which is about memorable moments in a healthcare career, please read our guidelines and get in touch by emailing sarah.johnson@theguardian.com.

Join the Healthcare Professionals Network to read more about issues like this. And follow us on Twitter (@GdnHealthcare) to keep up with the latest healthcare news and views.

Seeing Brian overcome his stammer filled me with professional pride

Brian Neville obituary

Brian Neville, who has died aged 77, was a key figure in the development of paediatric neurology and neurodisability in Britiain. He was the first UK professor of paediatric neurology, appointed in 1989 at the Institute of Child Health, University College London, and Great Ormond Street hospital.

Brian was born in Bexleyheath, south-east London, to Louie and George Neville. Brian and his mother moved out of London during the second world war, and his early years were spent in the idyllic setting of Brough, Cumbria. He later spoke fondly of the local women who taught him about farming life.

On the family’s return to Bexleyheath, he went to Upland primary school and then to St Dunstan’s college in Catford. Brian qualified in medicine at Guy’s hospital and soon came under the influence of Ronnie MacKeith, Philip Evans and Paul Polani, who inspired him to develop an interest in child neurology. When MacKeith retired, he took on his mantle as a consultant and director of the Newcomen Centre at Guy’s hospital.

Brian was an incredible support to me in my pursuit of becoming a paediatric neurologist, as he was to many trainees. He was an outstanding mentor who always found the balance between getting the research project done and allowing his mentee to develop their own ideas and direction. He always maintained an enthusiastic curiosity in the clinical problems of his patients. His priority was the children he cared for and it was they who inspired his internationally renowned research in multiple areas, including epilepsy, movement disorders and acute brain injury.

Brian was key to the development of the British Paediatric Neurology Association and served as its secretary (1980-83) and president (1986-89). He was a founding member of the European Paediatric Neurology Society and the European Academy of Childhood Disability, which he chaired for 12 years.

Brian’s vision of a multidisciplinary approach to the treatment of his patients led him to a long involvement with the charity Young Epilepsy, that evolved from St Piers, a specialist school for children with epilepsy in Lingfield, Surrey. He was instrumental in the development of the charity and its expansion into medical research of the childhood epilepsies. He also helped create the Prince of Wales’s chair of childhood epilepsy and between 2004 and 2007 was its first incumbent. The research centre at Young Epilepsy now bears his name.

Music was a huge part of Brian’s life, from playing the organ at his local Methodist church, to putting on music parties during which everyone could participate and enjoy making music together. For many years, he was also the chairman of Petts Wood playgroup for children with special needs.

He married Heather Gemmell in 1964, and she survives him, with their four children, Kate, Lisa, Andrew and Rachel, and seven grandchildren.

Brian Neville obituary

Our sperm donor system is impotent. Time for a rethink | Kate Brian

‘Patients are typically faced with a choice among a lengthy wait for a United kingdom donor or starting up remedy proper away, with a selection from a wide selection of overseas donors.’ Photograph: Alamy

It was a programme I presented for BBC Radio four, The New Viking Invasion, about our escalating use of donor sperm from Denmark, which sparked the recent debate about the shortage of donors in the United kingdom. Despite some rather excitable coverage, there is no proof that this is element of a wider trend for Scandinavian chic, traceable to a really like of Nordic design and Television detective dramas. Rather, our growing reliance on imported sperm has more to do with a gap in our system which is currently being effectively filled by slick and effective Danish sperm banking institutions.

These days, it is not just heterosexual couples with fertility troubles who are utilizing sperm from donors, but also much more and far more single girls and lesbian couples who want to start families. We can’t meet our national demand, and about a quarter of registered sperm donors come from overseas. The Danes, who can supply a broad selection of donors from specialist sperm banking institutions, are supplying an ever-rising proportion of our sperm imports. In contrast to fertility clinics in the United kingdom, the Danish sperm banks just deal in donor sperm and do not offer you other fertility treatment options.

Since the programme was aired, a number of United kingdom fertility clinics have been fast to level out that they can provide locally recruited sperm donors. Unfortunately, it is not often straightforward for folks who want to use donor sperm to get this info, as there is no co-ordinated system to connect sufferers with the clinics which have Uk sperm donors offered. Utilizing an overseas donor could not at first appear to develop any issues, but the longer-phrase impact could be an situation. Each and every Uk donor is constrained to commencing ten households here an overseas donor will have the identical limit in the United kingdom, but his sperm might be sent about the globe and be utilized to start off families in a lot of other countries – and there are no global limits on the amount of households an person donor can generate.

Fertility clinics in the Uk operate in a hinterland where the boundaries in between personal and NHS remedy are blurred: several private clinics have contracts to treat NHS individuals, although their NHS counterparts may possibly be treating large numbers of patients privately. With everybody competing for patients and contracts there is little incentive to share. It is not surprising that clinics may be reluctant to refer a patient to a unit which has United kingdom donors accessible, as this would suggest shedding the patient to one more clinic. Alternatively, sufferers are frequently faced with a decision in between a lengthy wait for a Uk donor or the alternative of beginning treatment method correct away, with a option from a wide selection of overseas donors.

Recruiting sperm donors can be pricey and time consuming, as only a single in each and every 20 men who decide on to do so will make the grade. Not only do they have to have substantial good quality sperm, they must also pass well being checks and go via exams to rule out the threat of passing on any diseases. If they are productive they will get £35 for each and every donation, but it is the want to assist other folks, rather than the cash, which motivates most donors.

Most fertility clinics simply will not have the time or assets to set up donor recruitment operations. There is no cash to be produced from screening the 95% of prospective donors who will be deemed to be unsuitable soon after going by means of the method. For each personal fertility clinic, donor treatment method is a reasonably tiny component of what they do, and it can be difficult to make recruiting donors cost-efficient unless you are working on a relatively large scale.

There have been suggestions that one remedy to the shortage of donor sperm in the United kingdom would be to let males to donate beyond the existing lower off age of 40, but that is assuming that the problem could be resolved by widening the pool of males who are eligible to donate. The adjust to the principles surrounding donor anonymity in 2005, which meant that donor-conceived men and women have the proper to locate out identifying specifics about their donor, has also been blamed for our shortages, but it is usually accepted amid fertility experts that this is not the actual lead to. Perhaps what we actually need to have if we are to minimize our reliance on overseas donors is a a lot more radical answer. Whether or not that is a co-ordinated method, with regional centres sharing the expense of recruitment, some central source of info detailing availability for these who need to use donors, or even one particular large nationwide sperm financial institution, it truly is clear that change is necessary.

Maybe if fertility clinics have been able to perform together as portion of a nationwide support rather than competing towards a single yet another, we would create a technique that could meet patients’ needs.

Our sperm donor system is impotent. Time for a rethink | Kate Brian

Brian Jones obituary

The large level of Brian Jones’s job was as a teacher of understanding disability nursing college students

Our friend Brian Jones, who has died aged 59 of pancreatic cancer, will be remembered for his commitment to studying disability nursing and for his unassuming personality.

We met Brian when he worked in Bryn y Neuadd hospital, Llanfairfechan, north Wales, in the 1980s, a time when huge-scale segregation of people with understanding disabilities was ending. At the time he was living in an progressive group house, as a single of a crew of five supporting 3 grownups with particular demands around the clock. He was appreciated as a humble person, who regarded as himself to be equal to the folks he supported.

Brian would urge other people to “deal with people tidy”, and he stuck to this philosophy in all of his professional roles, as a community nurse in Anglesey (1988-92), as a situation management group leader (1992-96) and finally, maybe the apex of his occupation, as a instructor of learning disability nursing college students in Bangor University, exactly where he worked till his retirement. His college students even now recall his inspirational educating, moral constancy and eccentric and humorous approaches.

Born in Rhyl, north Wales, Brian was brought up close to Swansea with his brother, Geoff. He went to school for a time in Wokingham, Berkshire, prior to moving back to Swansea to read through geography. On graduating, he undertook finding out disability nurse training at Bryn y Neuadd. He met his wife, Ellie, when she went to function in day services at the hospital in 1988.

In the late 80s, Brian assisted to train athletes with finding out disabilities for north Wales teams in the early days of the Unique Olympics, when this kind of occasions have been run on a shoestring. He went on to organise weekend strolling and cycling groups. His passion was fell operating he was element of the winning staff in the 3 Peaks yacht race and he took third place in an event staged in the Tasmanian wilderness. He would not mention these successes unless he was asked. In his short retirement, from 2010, he liked practically nothing better than to potter close to Snowdonia.

He is survived by Ellie and their son, Giles, and by Geoff.

Brian Jones obituary

Brian Might undergoing "urgent tests" more than cancer fears

Brian May mentioned he was feeling optimistic in spite of the well being scare as the results of exams so far have uncovered no indicator of cancer. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

The Queen guitarist Brian Might has unveiled how he has been undergoing “urgent” tests more than fears he could have cancer.

The rock star told fans on his website that his doctor organised scans, the most recent of which was nowadays, right after he complained of significant soreness that affected his capacity to stand up. MRI scans showed there were “abnormalities in the bones”, foremost to even more investigation above the Christmas time period.

Might, who has been foremost a campaign against the culling of badgers, said he was feeling optimistic despite the health scare as the outcomes of tests so far have exposed no signal of cancer.

The 66-year-previous mentioned in a site post on Saturday that he started out to get “undesirable pains in the backside” 3 months following getting knee substitute surgery earlier this yr. “So about Christmas I have been possessing a succession of blood exams, ultrasounds, and different types of scans, to see if they could rule out various varieties of cancer.

“Now, on hearing the ‘C’ word something transpires inside you … of program. I have observed so numerous of my dear close friends fighting it … and my Dad misplaced his battle at age 66, exactly the age I am now.

“So more than the last number of days I have been in numerous states of unrest. But the fantastic factor has been that the team my GP assembled to examine out the prospects has moved heaven and earth to gather all the data I want swiftly more than the Christmas time period … not an straightforward time.”

An update on brianmay.com on Monday thanked supporters for their type phrases. May possibly, married to actor Anita Dobson, wrote: “I’ve been overwhelmed by the remarkable messages you’ve been sending me, people, since I wrote about my ‘Health Scare’.

“It really is taken me by surprise – for a lot of factors. I actually did not realise how significantly you guys have been gunning for me … it really is fantastic to know that, and I can’t thank you sufficient. It puts a smile on my face.

“But I did not realise that biting the bullet and mentioning the ‘C’ word would unlock such an avalanche. I now realise that so several of you have been wrestling with this all along, personally, or in family members or friends, and, like me, found it hard to share. Hearing of your experiences, and courage, and hopes, and answers, has been a enormous eye-opener for me.”

He stated he would know a lot more soon and was getting on with preparations for a forthcoming tour whilst he waited for the results. Specialists have been “truly constructive” and advised him that even if tests did reveal cancer, it would be “virtually surely treatable with good results”, Could added.

His publicist mentioned he would not be making a statement in addition to the musician’s posts on his site.

Brian Might undergoing "urgent tests" more than cancer fears