Yoga teaching in Reading Prison

Emma Midgley
BBC Berkshire reporter

Newbury woman Kate says yoga cured her stutter

At 65, Newbury woman Kate Oppel says she is fitter than when she took up yoga 21 years ago.

Since taking her teaching certificate aged 53, the intrepid yoga fan has travelled to India to take part in a meditation course in the Himalayas.

Kate has also passed on her love of yoga to children, prisoners and adults, some of whom are in their 80s.

"I did teach in Reading prison five years ago," she said. "Yoga is very good at calming people down.

"It's also very good for hyperactive people. Yoga is being taught at schools, at mother and baby groups. It gets people used to using their bodies.

"I teach at Newbury College. My oldest pupil is 89. Some of my 80-year-olds are amazingly flexible."

Now Kate has written a book called Yoga Expanded and Simplified. Yoga teachers share their ideas published under her spiritual name, Vani Devi.

She has given several of her books away free to Reading prisoners so they can practise yoga without needing to go to classes.

The 65-year-old former music teacher claims that practising the art of yoga helped her conquer her stutter.

"Yoga heals a lot of people," she said. "It's spreading very, very quickly."