A woman who has spent 13 years volunteering in a prison literacy scheme says that once offenders can read, they start to believe in their future.

Sarah Pender, from Devizes in Wiltshire, trains literate inmates to teach those who can not read, through the Shannon Trust.

The recently retired primary school teacher has now been nominated in the BBC Radio Wiltshire’s Make a Difference Awards. She said the scheme was important because 70% of the prison population had reading issues.

“You really see people going from being complete non-readers to actually believing they’ve got a future – because they can think about getting a job, housing or just making a difference on the outside,” she said.