An Iraqi refugee who came to the UK at the age of 12 and could not speak any English is celebrating achieving straight ‘A stars’ in her A-levels.

Shams Hadi, 18 will now go on to study Medicine at UCLan. The Runshaw College student said she wanted to inspire others by her journey.

She told us: “When I started my first academic year in the UK, I had no experience of the English educational system, nor a curriculum taught in the English language. 

“There was a learning gap of more than seven years between me and the students in my year group. I found it difficult to catch up with students in my year group, due to my inability to speak English.

“At the time, Arabic was the only language I could communicate in.

"Despite the difficulties I faced I set myself the target of getting into medical school early on. I stayed focused and worked hard to achieve it.”

Shams achieved A stars in Maths, Biology and Chemistry. Her earlier test average ranked her in the top 5 students out of 500 in A-Level Mathematicians.

She was one of the highest achievers in Chemistry tests and was nominated on multiple occasions to take part in Cambridge competitions for Chemistry. She also participated in the Chemistry Olympiad run by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

The Preston teenager said the support of her family was important and decided to study at UCLan so she could stay close to them.

She said: “I feel grateful for all the difficulties I went through as it motivated me to work harder and hopefully make my parents proud as they sacrificed a lot for me and my siblings, by moving here and bringing us to safety.”

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Sham said her experiences as a child inspired her to be follow a career in Medicine.

“What ignited and fueled my desire to study Medicine was being born and raised in a poverty-stricken country. It allowed me to see first-hand how access to healthcare and medicine makes an immense difference to people’s lives.

“The Covid pandemic and the fact that I had to self-study for the majority of my A-Level time made the task of succeeding in my A-Levels a lot more difficult. 

“However, I didn’t use that as an excuse to not study and excel academically. I took responsibility for my own learning and studied for hours to make sure that the initial target I set of getting into medical school could be achieved.”

She had this advice for other students: “Work extremely hard and do everything in your power to achieve what you desire, to make yourself and your family proud.”