A new book by Slough teacher Christine Draper is the second to have been inspired by her own son and his battle against a challenging medical condition.

When Mrs Draper decided to write the first book inspired by her son Luke she was thinking of her nieces and hoped it would help them to get to know and understand him better.

Luke has a condition called dyspraxia which affects co-ordination skills and can make tasks requiring balancing, writing or using small objects difficult.

Mrs Draper, 50, of Long Furlong Drive, Britwell taught science at St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School in Langley for nine years, before moving to a school in Reading.

She had written a number of acclaimed 11 plus tuition books before taking a major change in direction with her book My Friend Josh Has Dyspraxia.

It is a gentle picture book in which a child narrator talks about her friend who has the condition.

Christine's son Luke is now 16 and she said: "I wrote it so my nieces would understand my son better but I am hoping it will help other children to realise that being different does not matter.

"Children are much more accepting if they are given a reason or and understanding of why another child is different, so I made the narrator in the book a child talking to other children about her friend.

"It is really important children understand and accept people who are different from them."

Luke is also autistic and Mrs Draper has now written a second book - called My Friend Jake Has Autism.

Again, she presents her hero through the eyes of a fictional child who is a friend of his - and who wants to talk about him to other children.

Mrs Draper lives with Luke, her daughter Ruth, 21 and husband Phillip.

Like all her books My Friend Jake Has Autism is published by Achieve2day. It can be bought through Amazon or from bookshops.