Buttershaw Tourette’s teenager to host show on Bradford's BCB radio (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Buttershaw Tourette’s teenager to host show on Bradford's BCB radio

8:00am Friday 8th March 2013 in News

Teenager Ashley Forrest is going live on air to co-present a radio chat show proving dream ambitions can happen – despite having Tourette’s.

The 18-year-old from Buttershaw says his condition used to hold him back, making his school days a misery but, thanks to help from Christian education charity The Lighthouse Group, his life is on the up.

On Thursday at 6.30pm, community station BCB listeners will hear him co-host a half-hour chat show with his friend Brett Sykes.

Station manager Dan Carroll was so impressed with the pair’s pre-recorded shows on the BCB Extra slot on 106.6FM, funded by the Youth Opportunities Fund, that he offered them the chance to go live.

“Ashley’s a creative young man, full of energy and ideas and is an asset to the station,” said Mr Carroll.

Ashley, whose Tourette’s started when he was eight, is now hoping volunteering with BCB will open more doors that will eventually lead to a paid-for radio job.

“It would be a dream job. It’s something when I was younger I thought I’d never be able to do. I had to leave primary school early because they couldn’t cope with me and then at high school I was put in a student development unit because they couldn’t handle me being disruptive.

“I even had to eat sandwiches separately.”

Tourette’s does not make Ashley swear but it does make him lunge out and bite, he also barks and meeows.He said: “I’m open about my Tourette’s and will speak about it to raise awareness.”