In 1988 the late 14th Duke of Bedford suffered a stroke. His life was saved by prompt and highly skilled surgery, but he was left for many months with a severe disturbance of his speech known as Aphasia. With the help of intensive speech therapy, he slowly began to recover, but always experienced difficulty accessing the words he needed or wanted to use.
Why the charity was founded
The Duke's experiences at the time of his stroke left him in no doubt about the difference that continual speech and language therapy made. He also became aware of the lack of help available to sufferers of Aphasia in this country. That is why the Duke founded the Tavistock Trust for Aphasia, to try and ensure that more people could have access to the quality of treatment he received.