A Wimbledon mum whose eight-year-old son was feeling suicidal because of an undiagnosed disease is now trying to raise awareness about the condition.

Yvette Nieslony's son and daughter each suffer from Irlen Syndrome, which affects the brain’s ability to process visual information and causes reading and learning difficulties as well as light sensitivity, headaches and migraines.

Yvette says 20 per cent of the population may have the disease without knowing it - and many never find out they have it.

Her son was originally diagnosed with behavioural disorders such as ODD and ADHD until Yvette started researching Irlen Syndrome on the internet.

Both her kids were later diagnosed and received glasses with special filters known as Irlen Spectral Filters

She said: “When I read the symptoms it sounded like it was written about my son. His primary school told me he was working below age-related expectations so we weren’t expecting much from his SATs.

“ We got my son’s Irlen Spectral Filters one week before his SATs and he achieved scores of 115/120, when the average child scores 110/120.”

She added: “Prior to wearing his glasses my son suffered with a really bad self-esteem, wanting to end his life at the age of 8 because he was finding things so difficult, yet now that he has his glasses we don’t have any of that anymore- thank goodness.

“Having the Irlen Spectral Filters has transformed his life and he’s not had to have any remediation sessions since he got them.”

Yvette has since become a screener for the disease in other children and adults.

She added: “I realised that very few people were aware of Irlen Syndrome.People need to be aware of this option as there are so many who suffer needlessly at school and at work when they can be helped by the Irlen Spectral Filters. People don’t need to suffer and struggle every day of the lives just to do something as simple as reading. ”

Irlen Syndrome can affect children and adults of all ages and often goes undiagnosed because it is not identified by standard visual and medical examinations, says Yvette who ran a stall in in Wimbledon Library last week to raise awareness about the disease.

She said: " We had a constant stream of people stopping to ask us what Irlen Syndrome was. We had people who read with children in schools stop and ask questions.

"They'd never heard of Irlen Syndrome and were amazed to find out more about it. It's estimated that 20 per cent of the population have Irlen Syndrome and many of these people never find out they have it. If we could help just a few of the 13,500 people in Wimbledon that potentially have this it would be a brilliant start to getting the word out."

For more information visit www.irlenuk.com and send an email to irlensurrey@gmail.com to find your nearest screener and make an appointment.