A TEENAGER who battled a debilitating illness during her studies is celebrating after achieving straight As against the odds.

Eleanor Winter was struck down with glandular fever in the first term of academic year and is still to fully recover from it.

But today she was all smiles after achieving what she thought would be impossible.

The illness meant she missed a lot of school and suffered exhaustion throughout the rest of the year including whilst sitting her exams. She achieved two A*s and an A.

The 18-year-old said: “I wasn’t expecting to get these results at all. I wasn’t expecting to get them before I fell ill. This was an amazing surprise this morning.

“It has been a really hard year, I have been exhausted all the time and even in my exams I was so tired. I was falling asleep during the day in the sixth form and needed 12 hours of sleep.

“I had to play catch up when I came back to school and then work hard because I was so tired.

She added: “The school gave me a lot of emotional support as well as helping me with the work.”

Her proud parents were on hand to see their daughter receive her phenomenal set of results.

Mum Dorinda Winter said: “She has had an incredible difficult year and we are so proud of her determination.We could not be more proud.”

Now Eleanor is looking forward to a gap year and hoping to work in France or Germany, having received top grades in languages, before going to university.

Eleanor was one of the many young people celebrating success at Bolton School.

Captain of North of the England Lacrosse team, Georgina Owen juggled her sporting commitments with her studies to achieve an A* and two As to study maths at Bristol.

She said: “Having commitments meant I had to manage my time well and I want to continue with sport at university. Maths is a demanding degree but I want to still do sport and hopefully go as far as I can.”

Natasha Bagnall, who took the leading role in the school production of Dr Faustus, is to study English Literature at Durham University, having achieved two A* and an A.

She is hoping to use her skills to possibly become a director.