Princess Beatrice of York

I am greatly honoured to become Patron of The Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre. I have benefited hugely from their work, and I am looking forward to supporting them in giving a chance to others to benefit from their experience and teaching.

When I was younger, I was diagnosed with dyslexia, which meant, for me, sitting in front of a book was really hard - until I discovered Harry Potter, and this character, this 11-year-old boy, who suddenly gets off to school for the first time, captured my imagination, and suddenly reading was fun. Reading was inspiring, and I was motivated.

I do read a lot, and I think in recent years the ratio between the amount of non-fiction and fiction has tipped quite considerably. I did read fiction as a teenager as well, mostly because I was forced to read fiction, of course, to go through high school.