Palin: 'Father inspired stammer advocacy'

Michael Palin has insisted that his father Edward's stammer inspired him to found a facility to aid those afflicted with speech impediments.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, the Monty Python member revealed that both his father's struggles and the experience of playing a stammerer in A Fish Called Wanda motivated him to open the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children in 1993.

"[I was] asked if I would support the establishment of a centre for the particular treatment of stammering in children. My father's silent suffering came immediately to mind," he said.

The actor continued: "Here was just the sort of thing that might have changed his life - a therapy whose aim was to spot a stammer [from] the first moment it manifests itself... I agreed, and the centre opened."

Palin further explained that he considers his advocacy for stammering children to be the crowning accomplishment of his life.

"Nearly 18 years on, the centre has 10 full-time therapists, has changed the lives of many hundreds of children for the better, and in 2008 was given a £340,000 ($528,734) vote of confidence by the government, to extend the expertise across the country.

"There is nothing I am more proud of in my life than the establishment and success of the Michael Palin Centre," he noted.

The Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children is headquartered at the Finsbury Health Centre in Islington.