A charity supporting adults who struggle to read and write has celebrated its 10th anniversary in Melksham.
Read Easy, which works with around 20 people at a time across north and west Wiltshire, was set up in Melksham in 2015 and has since helped nearly 80 people to improve their reading and writing skills.
To mark 10 years of supporting local people, the charity held a celebration event at the Riverside Centre on Thursday 15th May.
Melksham’s new mayor, Cllr Saffi Rabey, attended the event and said, “Melksham has always had a strong sense of togetherness. Read Easy is a real home-grown success story; you are exactly the kind of community-led initiative that Melksham needs.”
Two current readers in the charity shared stories about the difference the charity’s one-to-one coaching sessions have made.
“My children were all educated, but not me. If you don’t know how to read in this country, you are like a blind person,” explained one member.
Read Easy is completely volunteer run and receives funding from local authorities, charitable trusts and the private sector.
During the event, the first-ever reader to graduate from the Read Easy programme locally, Helen Hall, read an account of her reading journey. She said that for years she had hidden her challenge with literacy from ‘everybody.’
After her reading, she was given a huge round of applause.
Read Easy North and West Wiltshire team leader Suzanne Cox said the success of readers was inspirational. “It’s so lovely to be able to celebrate so many achievements over the last ten years,” she said.
The charity has been supported in the Melksham area by the town council, the Area Board, Melksham Without Parish Council, the Miller Knoll Foundation and the town’s Asda store.
It has also applied for lottery funding to help increase the number of readers it helps by 50 per cent.
At the event, a special presentation was made to the group’s founders, David and Sue Williams, who are still management committee members.
To find out more about the group, visit readeasy.org.uk and enter your postcode.
