Newly elected chair of the British Stammering Association Leys Geddes - known to many as speakingout2 on YouTube - has put raising awareness at the top of the agenda for his three year tenure.

Leys says, "It is difficult to raise awareness of a condition which many people are trying desperately hard to reduce or even hide, for fear of prejudice. I have no instant solution, but have pledged to ensure that the BSA does everything possible to help stammerers. But, to make real progress, we need to spend more time speaking to the 99% of people who don't stammer, so they will understand the difficulties we face, and help us achieve change."

Leys is calling for more funding to

• educate teachers and parents about how early intervention can enable 9/10 of those at persistent risk of stammering to talk fluently
• help even more speech and language therapists develop their early intervention skills
• educate politicians to give stammering a higher priority
• carry out a lot more research into causes and potential treatments.