A BLIND author wrote 26 pages of her debut novel... without realising her pen had run out of ink.

But her hard work was recovered thanks to a team of forensic officers from Dorset Police.

Trish Vickers, 59, has diabetes and lost her sight seven years ago and took up writing to keep her mind active.

She said she always wanted to write but had never penned anything more than a few short poems.

She doesn’t type or use computers but has a system of elastic bands that guide her to keep lines straight and she has a volunteer helper who comes in and types up her work.

Her son Simon comes over once a week to her Charmouth home and reads her work to her.

She was particularly looking forward to one of his visits because she’d been particularly inspired and had written 26 pages in one go.

But Simon had to break the news to her that there was nothing on the paper.

Ms Vickers, who used to run the Bridport gift shop Zoot Allures in South Street, said: “We battled with various ideas until we thought of the police.

“We rang them and asked to speak to their fingerprint section. They said if there was anything they could do they’d be happy to help.

“I was gobsmacked and so happy.”

Her son drove her and the blank pages to Dorset Police HQ in Winfrith and waited to see if they could recover the lost words.

That was last autumn and true to their word, officers in the department worked in their spare time, and during lunch breaks to try and crack the puzzle.

And officers managed to recover all the words using a system of lights to read the indentations left by the pen.

Mrs Vickers finally got her completed manuscript back last week.

She said: “I am so happy, pleased and grateful. It was really, really nice of them and I want to thank them for helping me out.”

Mrs Vickers says she only writes for a hobby but being blind she says it gives her a different world to live in.

She said: “Being blind is very restrictive in so far as going anywhere.

“I have always been interested in writing, I have got one of those strange imaginations that runs riot.”

Her book, called Grannifer’s Legacy, is about a character called Jennifer whose life implodes – she loses her job, her boyfriend and worst of all her namesake great-grandmother who has always been her guide.

She has to start a new life and the story is about how she does that.

Mrs Vickers said when she’s finished she might send it to a publisher.

“Everybody who has read it so far seems to like it and the police also said they enjoyed the bit they read and can’t wait for the rest.”