Can you imagine waking up one morning to find you’d suddenly lost the ability to talk?
Shockingly, that’s what happened to James Sutliff, who was a healthy 23-year-old when he went to sleep one night in 2008, only to awake the next morning unable to speak.
He appeared alongside wife, Samantha, on This Morning on Friday to share his story.
And, naturally, viewers were both stunned and inspired.
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As James finds it difficult to communicate, his wife did the majority of the talking, explaining to Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford that James has been diagnosed with the neurological disorder dystonia.
She said: “It affects his speech so it makes it hard for him to communicate via talking – and all happened pretty much overnight.”
“Initially we thought it might have been [a stroke] as he literally went to bed, woke up and is how he is.
“For James, it was absolutely frightening and we were all taken aback when we first heard his speech.
“We thought it would sort itself out and didn’t really know what to make of it.”
It took four years for James to be diagnosed with dystonia, with Samantha refusing to stop pressing for answers until doctors discovered what had happened.
As well as affecting his ability to speak, the dystonia has caused James’ hands to curl inwards involuntarily, which makes it hard for him to do tasks such as getting dressed.
He was forced to quit his job as a plumber.
Samantha, however, has been by his side the whole time.
“James is just James to me,” she said. “Just because he has his disability makes no difference. He is who he is.”
She said that “99 per cent of the time” she can understand what he’s trying to say – but joked: “I’ll have selective hearing occasionally!”
Despite finding it hard to communicate, James did answer the questions posed to him by Eamonn and Ruth.
When asked if he gets frustrated, he replied: “At the start it was very hard but now I’m just used to it. It’s me. I can’t change it. It is how it is.”
He melted viewers’ hearts by saying he desperately wanted to regain some speech so he could tell Samantha he loved her – which he was able to do.
She chipped in: “It was an amazing moment. James is very good at telling me every day I look nice so for him to actually say that, it was an amazing feeling.”
There is hope for James on the horizon, however.
Samantha said they’d met an American dentist in London earlier this year who had managed to improve James’ speech.
“He’s a dentist and cranial facial specialist,” explained Samantha. “The guys James had been seeing before were looking at his head, but what’s going on is in his jaw.
“He put spatulas in James’ mouth to elevate his jaw and pull it back into alignment. When he removed the spatulas, James could speak a lot clearer.”
Samantha said the hope is the dentist can make James a mouth piece to wear on a daily basis that will improve his speech further.
James now works as a fitness trainer, helping train disabled clients.
Viewers took to social media to praise James’ attitude and lavish compliments on supportive Samantha.
One wrote: “What a guy! What a lady! What a couple! Best of luck his condition improves.”
Another said: “How amazing are James and his wife? Such a strong couple and a heartwarming story.”
Others said they couldn’t image waking up one morning unable to speak.
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One tweeted: “It is so scary how you can just wake up and not be able to talk.”
Another said: “Poor James. Must be awful to lose your voice. Must be so frustrating, especially that there is no cure.”
Best of luck James and Samantha