A Harold Hill man who suffers from dyslexia has had his life dramatically changed - by an iPhone app.

Richard Shorter, 37, was diagnosed with severe dyslexia when he was seven years old.

His writing is so bad that he uses speech recognition programmes to compose emails and reports.

But described them as “awful and frustrating.”

He said: “In most offices that I have worked in people have joked and commented that my e-mails and reports are never easy to understand.”

Then Richard discovered Dragon Dictate, a newly improved speech recognition programme available on his mobile phone.

He has now bought the same software for his computer.

He said: “It’s cheap and very, very good. Dragon Dictate is the first tool which has allowed me to think and produce the written word freely,”

“I speak my thoughts and it produces them for me.”

Richard added: “I now no longer fear being asked to produce a report or send an e-mail. It gives me the freedom to express what’s in my head as written word and has freed me creatively and given me increased confidence.”

The software is available to download for free on the iPhone, while PC and Mac software prices range from around �65-�100.