Ann Swain was often caned and forced to wear a dunce's cap at her primary school.

Now, aged 73, she is starting an Open University course.

Mrs Swain could barely read or write because of dyslexia until five years ago, when she joined Leap, the adult education scheme in Barnard Castle.

Now she loves writing stories on the computer at her home in Larchfield Street, Darlington, and is determined to do some advanced learning.

Her commitment has been praised by Rosemary Wilson, her development worker at Leap, who said: "She has made fantastic progress and is an inspiration to everyone here."

Mrs Swain, a widow who has four children and five grandchildren, attended St Michael's RC Primary School, which has since been rebuilt, at Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland.

She said yesterday: "I was hopeless at lessons, but nobody understood about dyslexia in those days. I was often given six strokes of the cane on my hands, ordered to run around the playground and forced to stand in a corner wearing a dunce's cap.

"All my life I thought of myself as a failure because I couldn't read or write properly. But when I was 68 I joined a Leap class and it was like starting a new life. I'm a different person now."

Mrs Swain attends classes every Tuesday at Leap, learning information technology skills and desk-top publishing.

Officials there have arranged for her to join an Open University fiction writing course, on which she will study at first by computer.

Mrs Swain had a second success when a logo she created for the Friends of Leap was chosen as winner of a competition.