Yours Magazine Australia — January 04, 2018

45

TEXT: ALICIA PYKE PICTURES: GETTY IMAGES

Lesley Dewar

HELPING CHILDREN

LOVE TO LEARN

After a long career in financial

planning,Lesley, 74, from

Mandurah in Western Australia

now writes children’s books

My life’s purpose is to engage children

in exploring the world around them.

I want them to turn to their parent

and say, “Wow! I didn’t know that!”

when they’re reading my stories.

I’ve always been a big reader and

volunteered with an organisation as

a reading tutor for two years. I stopped

doing that and started writing my own

stories because it was heartbreaking to

be working with children who were

10 and couldn’t read.

My business Stories My Nana Tells

(storiesmynanatells.com) is for kids aged

between six and 11. It’s been running

for a year and is going gangbusters.

I’ve published three books and there

are another eight stories which can

be personalised for each child.

I’ve been married twice, have three

children and nine grandchildren and

now I’m knee-deep in great

randchildren, too! This is my

e to do what I passionately

love – such as writing, going into the

outback, travelling overseas and riding

in helicopters any chance I get.

I’m just about to reformat one of

my stories for a group of Aboriginal

children using their own indigenous

dialect words for animals that those

kids know. I want to do it for other

language groups, too.

I’m a five-year breast cancer survivor

and what keeps me going is knowing

every day above the ground is a good

day. The secret to life is gratitude and

a good sense of humour – you have

to be able to laugh at yourself: don’t

be too serious.