A student has scored top marks in her GCSEs despite having a brain haemorrhage just two weeks before exams.

Waldegrave School student, Sophie Parkinson, overcame incredible odds to score a grade 9, equivalent to A **, in her two English exams just a fortnight after lifesaving surgery.

The 16-year-old from Twickenham had to receive urgent medical care after the tumour was spotted by doctors in May this year.

Sophie was taken to Kingston hospital in April after complaining of a serve headache and collapsing on a Friday night out with friends in Richmond but doctors couldn’t find anything wrong.

The following Monday her mum took her to West Middlesex where doctor quickly realised an aneurism had ruptured in her brain.

She was rushed to Charing Cross where she was given lifesaving brain surgery.

Sophie said: “The doctors at Kingston could not find anything wrong with me. They could not believe someone of my age would have something like this as it usually affects people much older than me.

“When I came round doctors said I had no chance of doing my GCSEs. My parents were just so happy that I was alive so they did not push me.

“But I was determined. I had worked so hard for this for two years and I wasn’t going to let a thing like an aneurism hold me back.

“I go to such a fantastic school where you get so much support. Add to that the support I get from my parents then it was a big help.”

The school offered to let her delay the exam for six months while she recuperated but the teen was determined to take the exam at the same time as classmates.

She said: “Taking it in six months’ time was not an option for me. I was not going to let what happened to me stand in the way of my future and my ambitions.

“To get the top mark in both English and English Literature just two weeks after surgery is just incredible.

“The school were amazing. They have given me so much support and help. I am over the moon at the result.

“It goes to show if you are at the right school and you are determined enough then there is nothing you can’t achieve.”

Sophie will stay at Waldegrave sixth form to study English literature, history, geography and music.