How improving my literacy and numeracy skills as an adult changed my life

Linda Waldron worked on her literacy and numeracy skills with a tutor at the National Adult Literacy Agency and is now thriving in third-level education 

Girl reads a book, close-up.

Linda Waldron and her 20-year-old niece, Chloe, have always been close. When they were both a little younger, they spent hours in each other’s company. “Her mother worked in St. James’s Hospital,” says Linda. “So I’d look after her. I remember going to the doctor’s surgery with her once, picking up leaflets and not being able to read them. She’d ask me, ‘Linda, what's that word?’ and I’d have to tell her I didn’t know. You’d be embarrassed. She’d come home from school and I couldn’t help her. I could write and read but I didn’t know a lot of words.” 

As a child, Linda was “never bold in school” and “never got into trouble”. If anything, Linda was something of a go-getter. When the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre first opened near her childhood home in Clondalkin, she got work there, starting at 4.30 am and finishing four hours later so she could get to school on time.