now, he's looking for an apprentice, as jayne mccubbin reports.wrong. of course you'd be wrong. not guessed it? well, it's braille. it enables 80,000 blind people in britain alone to read. the six dot reading system was created by french teenager louis braille. but 200 years after its creation, it is facing a challenge. an alan thorpe—from—sheffield—shaped challenge. i have used a perkins brailler for about 45 years, and i've always had an interest in tinkering, taking things apart, finding how they work. you don't like being called an engineer? no. tinkerer? tinkerer! because engineers design things. itake apart! alan was registered blind aged 15, but he is so good at tinkering, he didn'tjust learn braille on a perkins machine like this. he learnt how to take that machine apart piece by piece and rebuild it. that is one of the springs what goes on the back space. i've just had to put one of those on this machine. so good was his tinkering, he became the uk's only certified repairer of the perkins braille writer, but now he's thinking of retiremen

here's jayne mccubbin.fight their battles. the six dot reading system was created by french teenager louis braille. for almost 200 years, it's helped blind children learn how to read and write, but today it faces a challenge — an alan thorpe from sheffield—shaped challenge. i have used a perkins brailler for about 45 years and i've always had an interest in tinkering, taking things apart, finding how they work. you don't like being called an engineer? no. tinkerer? tinkerer. alan was registered blind aged 15, but he is so good at tinkering, he didn'tjust learn braille on a perkins machine like this. he learnt how to take that machine apart piece by piece and rebuild it. that is one of the springs, what goes on the back space. i've just had to put one of those on this machine. so good was alan's tinkering, he became the uk's only certified repairer of the perkins braille writer, but now he's thinking of retirement. you are self—taught with just your fingertips. yes. even for somebody with sight, this sounds

jayne mccubbin, bbc news.. good evening. generally dry for most of us today with more low clouds. some outbreaks of drizzle towards some western coasts, but also some sunshine. the mild air, of course, helping the snow to continue melting where we still have it. and it's more of the same as we head through the rest of the week. a mixture of cloud but also some sunny spells. it's largely dry, mild, particularly in the north and the west, and there will be some areas of mist and fog developing too, and that's most likely across the southern half of the uk. underneath this area of high pressure, where the winds stay light, the high deflecting these weather fronts out towards the north and the west. but here it's breezier and also much milder too. you can see that mild airjust sweeping in on the south—westerly wind, marked in the dark yellows and the ambers. so for the rest of tonight, then a mixture of cloud and some clearer spells, a few outbreaks of patchy rain for the western isles, perhaps, and it's going to

our reporter, jayne mccubbin, has been to meet a group of women receiving treatement for breast cancerars tattooed has helped them to reclaim their bodies. introduce yourself. 0h! hand on. hi, i'm kate, and i'm the founderof the inkredible foundation. kate's charity is dedicated to helping women heal the scars of breast cancer... come on then, let's do this. ..with ink. and today is dawn's turn. it's about being able to turn something, um, you know, a scar into a piece of art and making somebody feel beautiful. four years ago, a consultant told dawn she had breast cancer. and place it over your scar? that works for me. a disease which had already claimed the life of her auntie christine. before i even sat down, i said, i've got cancer, haven't i? and he went, how did you know? and it was the gentleman that had previously dealt with my auntie as well. i probably cried two tears. and then after that, that was it, i were like, right, tell me what i need to do, i'm going to do this. fabulous. that's going to look great. i went two years without my breast, and then i had the reconstruction