'I Feared Tourette's Would Ruin My Life' — Now She Lectures at Cambridge

Dr Amanda Cole was 15 when she experienced her first vocal tic during a religious studies class — a peculiar spasm at the back of her throat that she assumed would pass. It did not. Years later she was diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome, a condition causing sudden, repetitive sounds or movements. Her first reaction was fear. 'How am I going to have a family? How am I going to have a job?' she remembers asking herself. 'I thought it was going to destroy my life.'

Hiding in Plain Sight

Now 32, Cole is an assistant professor in sociolinguistics at Cambridge University — and until very recently, not a single colleague or student knew about her condition. She managed her tics by suppressing them or releasing them discreetly when the person she was speaking with looked away. She grew up on the Debden Estate near Loughton, Essex, and told no one at school. 'I felt so scared of Tourette's,' she says. 'There was no-one I knew that had Tourette's, and I didn't see anyone in the public eye that had Tourette's — and if they did, they were a figure of ridicule.'

Going Public

Cole said she decided to speak out following a widely-reported incident at the Bafta Film Awards earlier this year, in which a guest with tics shouted offensive words. She allowed the BBC to follow her as she began disclosing her diagnosis to colleagues and students. 'It's quite liberating telling people,' she says. 'Most of the time people are just like: oh, OK, fine.' Her tics typically include calling out the names of family members or random phrases like 'good night' during the day.

A Hidden Phenomenon

Data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency shows that of approximately 245,000 academic staff working across UK institutions, only 70 — just 0.03% — have disclosed a developmental condition affecting motor or cognitive skills. Experts say the true number is far higher, with many academics concealing conditions like Tourette's for fear of professional repercussions. Cole, who is also autistic, acknowledges she may represent 'the palatable face of Tourette's' because her tics are not profane. But she says that is all the more reason to speak: 'What we really need as a society is just to normalise people expressing themselves differently.'