FOR most of his life Guy Clothier tried to avoid writing anything down. He was so embarrassed he would make a mistake.

“Lots of people are like it - more than let on. You get very good at hiding it,” he said.

But on Monday Mr Clothier, 41, will be celebrated as one of 20 reading champions selected by the National Literacy Trust. A year ago he could barely read or write. Now he reads avidly and fluently, writes poetry and has been published in his staff magazine.

He left school at 16 and started life as a thatcher. After 15 uneventful years he fell off the roof of a three-storey house. He smashed his skull, and much else besides. “The list of things wrong with me was a lot longer than the list of things right,” he said.

Mr Clothier had to learn to walk again, and thatching was out. He became a panel-maker, then a sewer man, and is now a street sweeper for the council.

While he was off sick, having two discs removed from his back, a small event changed his life.

“A girl in the office, she knew I was behind,” he said. “I would never write things down, she gave me a leaflet, told me about an open evening. Normally I would have said, that’s not for me. But she had given me the leaflet, so...”

He turned up to the open evening and listened to a local “adult learner of the year”. Someone who had been just like him told Mr Clothier he could do it. “I was hooked. It has been amazing, has opened so many doors.”

The course he went on was a partnership between South West Trades Union Congress learning services, the GMB union, his employer - South Somerset Direct Services - and Yeovil College’s Essential Skills department.

According to Dee Rogers of the TUC, the success of the scheme was down to union involvement, a supportive employer who paid overtime for attending basic skills courses, and a flexible quality provider.

The union approached members individually to find out their needs and encourage them. It conducted an informal learning survey so people would not have to fill in forms. The college was happy to run courses after shifts ended, either at the workplace or the campus.

Course members, including refuse and garden maintenance workers, now feel confident and skilled. The union is reassured about the health and safety of its members, now able to read notices. The company has found much better communication in its organisation and is planning an annual programme for its workers.

Mr Clothier will be one of the guests of honour at the celebration on Monday at Shakespeare’s Globe in Southwark. The 20 people have been nominated by the public, for their outstanding commitment to encouraging and inspiring others to learn. Mr Clothier is training to be a union learning representative so he can help others.

He is looking forward to going to London. He has only been three times before.

“I have not been to places like Madame Tussaud’s,” he said. “I would have got lost. I couldn’t read the timetable. But now I can. I have got my tickets and I’m going.”