DYSLEXIA is all too often misunderstood - but staff and students at NEW College set out to challenge some of the misconceptions during Dyslexia Awareness Week.

Last week, the Peakman Street college used the event to improve both student and staff awareness of the condition.

Learning and skills lecturer Marie Garner said information was easily accessible on the college's intranet and posters bearing the faces of dyslexic celebrities were displayed to prove it shouldn't stop people achieving their goals.

Each poster was displayed in the area in which it would be most effective, with, for example, a picture of Olympic Gold medallist Steve Redgrave in the sports department.

Sport and leisure student Zoe Milbourne said her dyslexia went undiagnosed until she became a student at New College but she said she always suspected she had the condition.

"I have trouble with reading and spelling and sometimes it gets me down but I've improved a lot and my ambition is to eventually teach sport."

Mrs Garner said dyslexia could differ in severity from one person to another but she said all dyslexic students were offered help with studies for weekly hour-long sessions to teach them coping strategies for their studies.

Former student Lee Leonard said dyslexia had never held him back from achieving his ambitions and he has now launched a career as a freelance graphic designer.

He said: "I've always struggled with spelling and grammar but I had a lot of help at college and managed to get a distinction for my final project in graphic design."

Lee added: "The biggest problem is people don't understand what dyslexia is, so there's quite a stigma attached to it."

Mrs Garner said: "We hope we managed to gently improve both students and staff's knowledge about dyslexia, letting people know that having dyslexia is no obstacle to achieving what they want to achieve."