I have stammered since childhood and work with a team of like minded individuals to continue to raise awareness of stammering as well as dispel any less than flattering preconceptions.

From the panic of ordering a bus ticket or saying my name in a forced ice breaker game, I have been there and experienced the sweaty palmed panic. That being said I have since gone on to establish a career and achieve qualifications in leadership and management which I thought, as stammering child, would have been impossible.

From a bullied school child to a parent worrying about their son or daughter's speech, stammering is common but seldom acknowledged. It is a mark of Cain I initially despised, but it has since become a scar which I do not conceal and a burden which has conditioned mental robustness alien to many.

Summiting the highest peak in each county of Northern Ireland within 24hours is a challenge not publicly achieved before, but serves as a good metaphor for the uphill struggle which stammerers go through day in and day out.