The Ross Duncan Story

There’s an old saying ‘behind every man there’s a good woman’.

I am thinking often the long suffering mothers of children with dyslexia that often don’t always get the proper credit or recognition that they richly deserve.  But it had been pointed out to me very recently by a CEO who happened to be dyslexic himself, who referred me being part of generation X, and commented that it must have been a lot harder for my generation compared to now, growing up in Scotland with dyslexia.

Because in my education generation there was no adaptive software as there is now and at that time schools had very little knowledge or understanding about dyslexia. So when the schools of my generation that knew very little (in fact in my case none at all) it was to be expected that my own mother would have known even less and not be in a position to support me.

So in my case I was beyond school age when I needed help. I only discovered that I had dyslexia in my early 40’s.  So skip a generation, it’s my long suffering wife that now helps me. In fact, to her credit, although not a trained teacher as such, she happened to have the desire to be one when she was growing up in Cape Town and attending the university there.

So who am I and what is it that I do, and when did I my interest in writing start

Why did I start?

• I picked up a book about Sir Jackie Stewart, a hero of mine, a number of years ago and basically it was a book that I couldn’t ‘put down’. It spelled out what he had been through with his experiences growing up with dyslexia and not knowing this until his early 40’s. The similarities were uncanny, in fact frighteningly similar – it was an EUREKA moment in my life, and something I will never forget.
• My shared experiences moved me in a way in wanting to readdress something that happened to me and a belief that this indignity shouldn’t be allowed to continue.
• I endeavor to make a positive change to help others.
• Books of any kind was something that I never previously been interested in, even though I had actually worked in the National Library of Scotland for over ten years.

Why do I write so much?

• I think that it is important to reach out and help people to understand, regardless who they are, where they are and what language they may speak.
• Being dyslexic makes you ‘think outside of the box’ and I hope to have achieved this in some part, by engaging with people nationally and internationally in order to help to understand complexities and myths about dyslexia.
• The message is clear, the message is the same, to inspire the 90% of people that have don’t have dyslexia, so they can better understand and help the 10% who do have Dyslexia.
• I also think it’s important to move forward and look forward instead of looking back.
• Over the years I have been inspired by a countless people who are much more qualified and experienced than I and intend in some part to share this with this with others so I can act as a bridge over trouble waters.