INSPIRATIONAL students' hard work has paid off having secured places at top universities.

Both Deeside Sixth students Jack Edwards and Nadine Parker-Jones have both battled severe health issues but their perseverance and hard work has been rewarded.

Jack, who missed four years of school after being diagnosed with leukaemia, has battled back to fitness and has secured his place to study medicine at Plymouth University.

Coleg Cambria learner Jack Edwards will begin life as a student at Plymouth University this September, an achievement he never would have thought possible.

Jack was a 12-year-old at Mold Alun High School when he was found to have acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a type of cancer that affects the white blood cells.

He spent years undergoing treatment at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool, in an attempt to rebuild his immune system, before eventually returning to school in year 11 at the age of 16.

Now 18 and in good health, he has successfully achieved A levels and is set to begin university.

Jack said: "I've come along way since my diagnoses, I thought I wasn't even going to get any GCSEs but I managed to get through them.

"Since then I've just worked really hard and have great people around me to support me through it."

And Jack's experiences have been hugely influential on his choice of course.

He added: "I haven’t yet decided which area of medicine I’ll specialise in once I get deeper into my agree, but oncology is definitely an option, it would be amazing to give something back to all those people who treated me."

Another student of Deeside Sixth who has had to overcome health battles is Nadine Parker-Jones.

She missed her first year of GCSEs due to illness, and was forced to sit 24 exams in one academic year.

Two years on, and Nadine has secured a place at the University of Liverpool, having achieved A* in geography and As in English Literature and history.

She said: "It's just an amazing feeling to know all those hard yards put in during GCSEs, and the work put in the last couple of years - especially travelling to and from Prestatyn everyday - has paid off."