OVERCOMING a learning difficulty was the spur that set Adam Chandler on the road to X Factor success.

Speaking to the Kent Messenger for the first time since her son was selected for the ITV1 show, Adam’s mother, June Diplock, from Eccles, near Maidstone, said she found out Adam had dyslexia when he was younger.

Anyone watching the talented, confident, but down-to-earth young man on stage with his band Futureproof would be hard-pushed to tell he was ever anything else.

But June, 49, said: “Dyslexic people are highly creative in other ways, so I enrolled Adam in tap-dancing classes to improve his co-ordination and control.

“He is an inspiration to dyslexic people. He shows that if you know your worth and believe in yourself, you can do anything.”

Adam was born in Eccles and went to St Mark’s Infant School and Burham Primary School, before attending the Stagecoach dance and drama school in Maidstone.

At 16, he attended the prestigious Brit performing arts and technology school in Croydon. He has been singing since he was 10, and is well-known in the Maidstone area for his performances in the distinctive Rat Pack style of Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis jnr.

June, who also has a 24-year-old daughter called Katie, said: “He has entered X Factor before, but was rejected. This time I got the forms and I filled them in!”

On the first live show, Futureproof sang the Robbie Williams’ hit, She’s the One, and last week performed If You Don’t Know Me By Now, by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, leading Simon Cowell to comment: “That was on the money.”

THIS week’s live X Facter performance is set to be a real challenge for Adam and his band as, for the first time, the five lads are going to be dancing as well as singing.

Adam said rehearsals had been interesting, as only he and one of the other band members had any previous dance training.

"It is definitely going to be a lot more difficult," he said.

Although the moves may cause some concern, Adam is quietly confident that Futureproof’s chosen big band song will be a hit with the audience.

"It is the sort of stuff I used to make a living out of," he said, "It is a fairly easy song to sing and hopefully the audience will like it.

"Last week’s audience were fantastic. As you get further down the line the audience will be made up of more people who are there for us, which helps give us confidence."

Being second favourite is something that Adam described as flattering but the attention is certainly not going to his head.

"If we don’t go out and give a really good performance then we are out of the competition, so it means nothing really."

According to Adam all the acts are getting on well and enjoying life in the X Factor house.

But it is a quick chat with his number one fan, mum June, each night that helps Adam wind down from the day.

"I ring her every night. Sometimes it is late but she wakes up for my call and we go through everything in the day.