Warm tale as gran learns to read at 57

A GRANDMOTHER has just learned to read at the age of 57 – so she can share bedtime stories with her grandsons.

Catering worker Denise Gallagher was 21 before she was diagnosed with dyslexia, years after leaving school.

As a child she was branded “stupid” and deliberately misbehaved to be thrown out of class and avoid the humiliation of trying to read out loud.

She spent years unable to go shopping and even refused to eat at restaurants for fear of not being able to read the menu. Now she can enjoy snuggling up with Ethan, six, and Blake, nine, and reading them bedtime tales.

Denise said: “They have always understood Nana cannot read but I just got fed up of saying, ‘Ask Grandad’.

“I’ve always felt so guilty that I didn’t have the courage and determination to learn and read to my own kids but my children don’t blame me.

“Now the grandchildren are getting fed up with me reading to them all the time!”

Denise, from Wigan, finally conquered her dyslexia thanks to ITV show This Time Next Year, hosted by Davina McCall.

Working with teachers on the show, she has learned to read to a basic standard within 12 months.

The Wizard Of Oz and The Railway Children are among the classics with which she now delights her grandkids.

She said: “There was nothing for dyslexic people when I was at school, people just thought you were thick.

“I have struggled all my life with basic things like going shopping. It’s been like that all my life but I just got on with it. Nowadays it’s much worse because everything is email or online.” After leaving school Denise found jobs that masked her illiteracy – as a cleaner or sewing machinist.

It was while finding work 30 years ago with disability specialist Remploy that she met her husband Michael, 64.

Michael, who is deaf, learned from a young age to lip read, which is how the couple communicate. She said: “Part of the reason I wanted to learn to read is to do sign language. You have to be able to read and spell to do that.”