Hi Tony,
Great topic by the way.
I'm the opposite to you, and a bit closer to Mick. Although I was taught to read music as a kid, through years of playing in a 'pop' band, I gave up reading music totally. I am blessed with quite a good ear for music and can generally hear a song a couple of times and play it from memory. Years later I tried to re-teach myself to read music by downloading songs from the net that I didn't know, opening them in BIAB & printing the music. I would then mute the melody/solo and play along. Problem was that I never knew if I was playing it correctly, so I'd un-mute the melody/solo, play and listen a couple of times, but by then I knew if fairly well without looking at the charts. A blessing in one way, but counter productive in another.
Alt

Sometimes the way that I memorise song is to sing the words to myself as I'm playing.
Have you tried this?
Take a simple old song that you know the words to, and try to play it without the music by singing the words and trying to "visualise" the notes coming up.

Also, try using BIAB's "Ear Training" - it will help you greatly if you can practise picking note intervals and chord changes.

I also think that having sheet music in front of you is a "crutch" in some cases. While ever it's there you'll look at it. Just because it's there.

Good luck with it Tony.

Cheers,
Keith