AS THE dust is settling on Christmas and new year and people get back into their usual routines, they often reflect on the past 12 months and decide what to do in the coming year to improve their lives.
With that in mind, a Wyre Forest charity which helps adults who are unable to read to gain this much-needed life skill, is urging residents to give it a go in 2026.
Here, Steve Peckham – team leader at Read Easy Wyre Forest and Bridgnorth – looks at the impact not being able to read can have on adults and what they can do to learn.
One person who decided to make a change is Lauren (not her real name) who said she could not face another festive season dreading Christmas Day and, in particular, in dread of the big family Christmas dinner.
For most of us, Christmas dinner is a fun time when we count our blessings, raise a glass or two to Santa and enjoy a meal shared with our loved ones – even if all 18 of us are squeezed around Aunty Barbara’s assortment of temporary tables or we are precariously perched a foot above everyone else on the corner arm of the sofa. It’s all part of the fun!
But Lauren does not look forward to Christmas dinner. She loves her family and, especially now, enjoys seeing her own two children having fun at Christmas and sharing time with their grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins.
Every year, however, Lauren goes quiet and starts to withdraw from the fun and banter once the potatoes are being peeled on Christmas Day.
Lauren’s fear grows over the next few hours and reaches its height when dinner is ready and everyone sits down to enjoy their Christmas roast dinner.
As the crackers are pulled and everyone dons their paper hats the panic rises, she feels trapped and will look for any opportunistic chance to escape the room.
Everyone else round the table is fishing out the little pieces of paper from their crackers that have the cheesy jokes and riddles printed on them.
She knows they will take it in turns to read them aloud to everyone around the table – but Lauren cannot read.
Although most of her family are aware, she is still deeply embarrassed and ashamed that, as an adult, she struggles with her reading, more especially in recent years in front of her own children and her nephews and nieces.
Although Lauren gets by in life, she fears and tries to avoid any day-to-day situations where she may be asked to read something. And struggling with her reading has had other effects on Lauren’s life.
It has meant she has always lacked confidence and felt different – quite isolated. That can get her down.
It has affected her job prospects and she has never voted.
She especially regrets that she cannot help her two children, who are now five and seven, with their reading and learning.
Lauren is not alone. It is a sad fact that around seven per cent of England’s adult working age population can barely read at all.
Another seven or eight per cent struggle with reading.
Not being able to read as an adult is rarely anything to do with intelligence.
There are a range of factors and circumstances that can contribute to it happening and it can have a dramatic effect on the lives of those affected.
For example, half of the prison population cannot read.
The good news is there is help available. Lauren’s husband was recently told about Read Easy and, after talking it over with her and finding out more, Lauren has made a new year’s resolution to contact her local Read Easy group.
Taking that first step, to get help with reading is the hardest stage but it really can transform someone’s life.
Read Easy Wyre Forest provides free, confidential, one-to-one help to adults who want to learn to read.
New readers meet with their own reading coach at a local, discreet venue and work at their own pace.
Anyone who has a close relative or friend who does not read can tell them about Read Easy Wyre Forest and contact either Raine, on 07800 860299, email [email protected]; or Sue, on 07807 836746 email [email protected] for more information.
