A young woman who was born with paralysed vocal cords is fighting to save her voice by reaching out to her thousands of followers on TikTok to find a cure.

Poppy Beech, 23, has always had a low, husky voice and says teachers used to tell her to "lay off the cigarettes" when she answered the register at school. "

She was only diagnosed with the rare condition of vocal cord paralysis aged 16 after her parents became concerned and took her to the GP.

Poppy, 23, who works in digital marketing for a furniture company, now fears she will lose her voice completely if a cure is not found.

To help her in her quest, Poppy launched a TikTok page showing videos of the challenges she faces while shopping and even ordering in restaurants.

Since posting her first 'Poppy Speaks Out' video on TikTok she has attracted more than 150,000 followers worldwide.

Poppy, from Cosby, Leics., said: "I think it's just the way I was born, I was only diagnosed at 16 after comments from teachers asking why I do I sound so different."



"They can't be sure when it's happened, as there's no trauma, so it must be from birth. "

"The main comment I used to get was ‘you should lay off the cigarettes' and ‘stop smoking' or ‘lay off the drink'."

" And things like ‘is Poppy here as we can't hear her'. Without those comments we wouldn't have got diagnosed."



"I was very shy but I didn't really get bullied. Some people made comments but nothing I'd class as bullying."



"I have never been able to shout or raise my voice. I have recently learnt to project my voice. I am quite quiet."



"I usually get someone else to order for me as it hurts to project my voice over a room. I sometimes write drinks orders down on my phone at the bar, or use paper. "

"Some people struggle with eating and breathing. The only thing that affects me is the sound of my voice, and it can make me tired as well." "

Poppy was born with paralysed vocal cords on her right side and says it makes talking normally difficult.



She's only had one operation in October 2022 where doctors injected silicone into her throat to try and move the cord closer to her fully-working cord.



But now she's having to seek additional surgery after seeing no dramatic increase in vocal ability.



Poppy added: "A lot of people that have this condition have lots of surgeries, there's not one that will fix you. "

"I wanted to reach out to people who have this to try other surgeries. I wanted to find people who had a success story. It's a rare condition, I've never met someone with it. "

"I thought I'd post a couple of TikToks and they got thousands of views. I learnt a lot and had to Google things. "

"I only started the page about a month ago. I've got loads of videos this week for people's questions. "

"It's always the same questions - how did it get paralysed, surgeries and why my voice sounds this way. "

"I've only had one surgery which was a silicone injection three years ago and you can't talk for two weeks. "

"I had a year's worth of speech and language therapy to build it up again but my voice hasn't changed."



"The whole point was to swell out my vocal cord to get it closer to the left vocal cord." "

While there is a chance her left vocal cord could become paralysed due to overuse leaving her mute, she is hopeful doctors can find a solution.



Poppy said: "There is a chance I could lose my voice the more I use my left vocal cords, the more I strain it. If it strains it that could be paralysed and my voice could go. "

"But I'm trying to focus more on the journey and finding people, showing the process and that it's normal. "

"I do get a lot of comments from people in real life saying they can't hear me or my voice is quiet. "

"But there's a lot of surgeries before anything like me losing my voice permanently is discussed."



"I was worried about hate comments but so far, out of 150,000 views across my page, I haven't had a single hate comment. "

"People have messaged me with advice and support and it's been lovely. "

"I have posted some TikToks about finding someone else in the same situation as me to try and find light at the end of the tunnel. "

"Because it's so rare I don't really know if it's going to be successful or if I have to keep trialling surgeries." "

Poppy is now awaiting surgery at Northampton General Hospital.

She added: "The surgeon was concerned if I don't try and have another surgery and I keep straining my left vocal fold that that will eventually strain and I could completely lose my voice."