POET OWEN SHEERS JOINS STAMMA’S ILLUSTRIOUS PANEL OF PATRONS

London, Wednesday, 22^nd January 2020 — Novelist, poet, playwright and presenter, Professor Owen Sheers, has been appointed Patron of the British Stammering Association trading as Stamma. A Bafta and Grierson Awards nominee, Owen recently featured in the BSA poster campaign for 2019’s International Stammering Awareness Day (22^nd October) and was keynote speaker at the BSA’s 2018 national conference in Cardiff.

Owen Sheers said: “It is an honour to be a Patron of the British Stammering Association. It is a tremendous charity which I know brings so much care, fellowship, guidance and reassurance to the lives of so many. I hope I can support the BSA’s work in a way that inspires its members and opens up the conversation around stammering. I’m one of many individuals who works with words, written and spoken, and who happens to have a stammer. I’m sure my stammer has provided me with a more nuanced relationship with language, cultivating a more attuned awareness of the weight, meaning and resonance that all words carry. I don’t think this feeling is uncommon among writers who stammer and is something I’d be interested in exploring further.”

Jane Powell, CEO, the British Stammering Association, added: “As someone who stammers, Owen’s ability to communicate is second to none. His skill with words, driven as he says by his struggle to literally express them, has furnished him with communication skills that most of us can only dream of. He is a powerhouse of prose, drama and poetry and I’m sure his Patronage of the BSA will bring more attention to the skill with language that many who stammer possess.”

Owen has enjoyed a prolific career and won many awards including: The Wilfred Owen Poetry Award (for Pink Mist), a Somerset Maugham Award (Skirrid Hill), Welsh Book of the Year (The Dust Diaries, Pink Mist), The Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award (The Two Worlds of Charlie F) and a BAFTA Cymru Award (The Green Hollow). Owen’s work has appeared on stages across the world and been translated into multiple languages. He is currently Professor in Creativity at the University of Swansea and a Trustee and co-founder of the Black Mountains College project.

Owen joins the British Stammering Association's existing Patrons, all of whom have direct experience of stammering - many having risen to prominence in the fields of the written word:

●Broadcaster and former MP, Ed Balls

●Celebrated writer, Dame Margaret Drabble DBE

●Former MP and MSP, John McAllion

●Acclaimed author, David Mitchell

●Entertainer, Nicholas Parsons CBE

●Actor and Podcaster, Scroobius Pip

●Businessman and broadcaster, Arwel Richards

●Original ‘super agent’, Jon Smith

●Politician, Baroness Whitaker.

—Ends—

About Stammering

Stammering is primarily a neurological condition which usually arises during the development of the brain in childhood. Stammering is frequently hereditary and if it continues into adulthood, will mainly affect men. A stammer is an intense struggle to physically get words out; this is profoundly different from the usual hesitations and repetitions most people experience. Research suggests that 8% of children will stammer at some point with up 1.5 million (3%) UK adults reporting that they have a stammer.