Confidence boost that will change your life

LESLEY REECE suffered from agoraphobia and did not leave her house alone for four years.

The 49-year- old, from Chadderton, Greater Manchester, who used to work with children with behavioural issues, had suffered a nervous breakdown. But she gained a new lease of life after discovering adult education. A support worker persuaded her to go on a course called Finding Me, run by Sally Bonnie, the founder of Inspire Women Oldham. After being encouraged by her daughter, Rachel, 29, Lesley attended her first jewellery course.

She says the course reawakened her ‘love of learning’. Since March 2015, Lesley has undertaken many courses in arts and crafts, mentoring and mental health through Oldham Lifelong Learning Service.

She passed her GCSE English exam last year and completed an award in Teaching and Learning this year, which means she can now teach adults herself.

Lesley says: ‘Being able to attend the many courses over the past three years has made a drastic change to my confidence.’

Lesley now volunteers at the Inspire Women project in Oldham. She says: ‘Seeing other ladies blossom is the best feeling in the world.’

Lesley won an Outstanding Individual Learner award in the Festival of Learning in 2016. The festival is led by the Learning and Work Institute and supported by the Department for Education.