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AchieveAbility advises Dragonfly productions for the Channel 5 documentary ‘ My Secret Past’ featuring Shane Lynch

Air time is Monday 7 January at 10pm on Channel 5

http://www.channel5.com/shows/my-secret-past/articles/contacts

Boyzone’s singer-songwriter Shane Lynch always stood out as different from the clean-cut image of the rest of the band. Now, he opens up about a personal secret that has caused him embarrassment and problems throughout his life and explains much about his character.

Shane struggled with reading and writing all the way through school. Although he developed a number of coping strategies to get through, he was eventually asked to leave as he was thought to be lazy and disruptive. He then worked for his father in his garage until he was plucked from obscurity to become a member of Boyzone. Since then, he has never looked back.

Now at the age of 35, Shane still struggles to read and write and finds his inability embarrassing, but having a young daughter has finally prompted him to do something about it. He was told a couple of years ago that he may have dyslexia, but it has never been officially diagnosed. He is given a proper assessment, but he worries about the outcome – what if he is not dyslexic after all?

Before taking the assessment, Shane returns to his old school in Dublin to explain how hard it was for him back then. He also speaks to family members to find out how much they really knew about his illiteracy.

Shane is keen to find out how today’s dyslexic youngsters are coping and visits schools that are proactively helping students to overcome their dyslexia. Among other sufferers, he meets a university student who is struggling to get through her finals and a young man behind bars who is convinced that his situation is due to his dyslexia never being spotted at school.

All this is leading up to his own dyslexia assessment.

How does Shane feel about taking it, and will the final result be the news that he has been waiting for? Whatever the outcome, Shane wants to show that people should never keep quiet or feel ashamed about not being able to read or write.