With three events in three days in Shaftesbury, Gillingham and Marnhull, the group Read Easy Blackmore Vale has been raising its profile and raising money to buy computer tablets for learners to borrow so they can learn from home

Read Easy, which offers free, one-to-one coaching to adults who struggle to read, says possibly seven in 100 people in the UK have difficulty reading.
Team members, friends and supporters spent a day in Lidl in Shaftesbury running a ‘Raconteurs’ event in which they read out loud from their favourite books. Lots of shoppers stopped at the information pod.
Next it was on to Marnhull village hall, where the group welcomed Shaftesbury’s Mayor Piers Brown, individuals who have learned to read with the group, some of the coaches and members of the public.

Helen Slater, director of the Irlen Centre, gave an interesting talk about Irlen Syndrome. In this condition the brain cannot cope with skills like reading graphs or copying information from books or screens. Those affected may misread words, skip words and lines, read more slowly and confuse letters and words that look similar. These symptoms can be treated by using coloured filters in glasses or contact lenses.
The final event was a fundraising fathers and sons run from Shaftesbury Library to Gillingham Library, through Kingsettle Wood, Motcombe and the fields past King John Palace to Gillingham. The four runners completed it in a little over an hour.
Holly Ridout, the group’s publicity officer, said: “We must thank the libraries for welcoming us, a great team of marshals who helped us in Motcombe, and friends, coaches and team members who came forward to marshal for us.

“You can still sponsor the runners (pictured above) on JustGiving – go to the search page and type in ‘Runners – Andy, Rollo, Barry and Barnaby’.”