A SCHOOL pupil has come out smiling after earning an impressive set of GCSE grades, despite time off sick after being diagnosed with a brain condition.
Grace Warburton leaves Mossley Hollins High School with a Distinction Star in Health and Social Care, plus grade nines, eights and passes in all her other subjects.
And she has achieved it against the background of living with Chiari malformation, which sees the lower part of the brain push down into the upper spinal canal.
That can cause severe headaches, dizziness, numbness and even speech problems and meant time off school and adapting in lessons.
But after handling all that, Grace, of Mossley, has achieved excellence.
She said: “The diagnosis in January did impact me quite a bit and I missed out on quite a lot.
“But the school did support me. I was allowed into a smaller room, so I could have rest breaks.
“My time off wasn’t really all at once. I just had a few days off here and there and I had to get a lot of what was needed myself.
“I spent hours revising at home – and I had a headache for every exam.”
With GCSEs done, Grace is heading to Ashton Sixth Form College to study Law, Biology and Psychology.
All that is with a view to studying the latter at university and getting a career in that line of work.
She may also study how nervous she was as results day approached.
Grace added: “I woke up at 6am and was really nervous.
“I couldn’t sleep as the nerves kicked in the night before. I’d been trying not to think about it.
“Now I’m wondering why I was panicking a bit!”