Life for Bradley was tough at school and home. He found reading and writing profoundly difficult and was giving up hope of ever being able to read a book. School and education were filled with frustration and humiliation.

Bradley was one of a large family of children being brought up alone by their mother. He knew there was little chance of getting support with his literacy as his mum struggled with reading and there were few books at home. He would deliberately break his glasses if his mum offered to read with him as he knew it would end up in an argument.

But help was at hand from the charity Reading Quest, which has specially-trained tutors who have helped thousands of six and seven-year-olds in Oxfordshire to read and write over the last 15 years. The consequences of not being literate are bleak and that is what makes every Reading Quest tutor so determined for pupils to succeed. Lessons began with Bradley just putting his head on the desk and ignoring pleas from his tutor to begin to learn. Extreme patience and bringing a huge element of fun to the Reading Quest sessions meant that he could soon congratulate himself on knowing his letter names and sounds and he gradually became able to sound out short words and spell harder words.

Whereas books were initially read by the tutor to Bradley, he was able to tackle some books by himself by the end of the course.

There were tears at the end of Bradley's six weeks with Reading Quest, but only because Bradley was sorry to finish and said: “I don’t ever want to stop this. It makes me feel good.” He now works more independently in the classroom and even helps his younger siblings with reading at home. In order to create many more success stories like Bradley’s, Reading Quest relies heavily on the support of generous individuals. We have a number of fundraising initiatives coming up soon including a sponsored 15k swim by international swimmer and Reading Quest intern, Georgia Gray, on April 30.

And a group of 12 Reading Quest tutors, interns and trustees are taking part in the Oxford Fun Run on Saturday, May 12. We also rely on volunteers, in particular to help us with fundraising, marketing, administration and promotions.

Visit www.readingquest.org.uk to find out about these activities and for more information.