Battling Bethany

Bethany Bilton

A NORTH Chadderton school pupil who battled with leukaemia is walking on air after achieving top GCSE grades.

Bethany Bilton (16), of Royton, was diagnosed with the disease in 2006 and spent two of her most important years of education out of school.

She was in Year 8 when she had to leave the Chadderton Hall Road school for lifesaving treatment at Pendlebury Children’s Hospital, where she spent five months.

After being given the all clear, Bethany returned home and received private tuition, organised by the school, to help her catch up with missed work.

Yesterday, she ripped open the envelope containing her GCSE results and was shocked to find she had achieved eight grades A-C in science, business studies, history, additional science, maths, English literature and English language.

She also passed the Alan literacy and numeracy test, which is equivalent to a GCSE grade.

Bethany, who is now set to embark on a hairdressing course at Oldham College, said: “I missed full school when I was poorly and I didn’t realise I would get good results. I am over the moon.

“There was a lot of history, business studies and English course work to do which I completed.

“Although, I was fit and well when taking the exams, I was so nervous because I had missed a lot of work.

“My family has been really good because they said it was understandable if I didn’t get the grades I needed for my hairdressing course. I would have had to re-sit them.”

She added: “I want to thank the school and its learning centre which provided the support to me at home for two years.”

Sue Middlebrough, assistant head teacher at North Chadderton, said: “Throughout all her hard work, it was Bethany’s determination that got her through.”

The school also congratulated other star students who achieved excellent GCSE results including Heidi Yip (six A* and three As); Marissa Walters (seven A* and two As); Michael Shaw (six A* and three As); Jennifer Harris (five A* and four As); Katie Middleton (five A* and five A); Thomas Flynn (one A* and 10As); Charlotte Thickett (five A* three As and two Bs); Alexander Kershaw (four A* and six As) and Mohamed Hannon (five A* three As and two Bs).

Fiona Jack, deputy head teacher, added: “There were many individual successes but we are proud of the achievements of all our students.

“This continues an upward trend in improvement over recent years.”