Cancer victim's A-level triumph (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Cancer victim's A-level triumph

Julia pictured at her last school prom. COURAGEOUS student Julia Denham died never knowing she had passed the A-level exams she struggled so hard to complete.

Julia, 18, a student at St Augustine's Catholic College, Trowbridge, took her exams despite being in the final stages of a four-year battle with skin cancer, but died a fortnight before the results came out.

Her grieving parents were told yesterday she had achieved a B grade in English and a D in history as well as three AS levels, which she was not able to take last year because of her illness.

Her father John said: "We were proud but not surprised. She was such a determined young lady.

"She was so ill in the first year of A-levels she had to repeat it, so she did both years at the same time, even though she was going through all that treatment."

When the time came to take the exams Julia was desperately ill but still wanted to sit them along with her friends.

"She was determined to lead as normal a life as possible, she didn't want a fuss made," her father said.

This week headteacher Brendan Wall paid tribute to his former pupil, who dreamed of becoming a primary school teacher, calling her an ambassador for the school. He said: "Although it is a time of celebration it is tinged with sadness.

"Julia coped admirably, she was jovial and thinking about what peoples' reactions were to the cancer, rather than her own.

"You don't remember Julia for her results, you remember Julia as a person She was a great ambassador."

Mum Cecile praised the efforts of staff at the school in helping her daughter through the exams.

"Julia's results are a tribute to the teachers as well as everyone else at the school," she said.

Julia, of Locks Hill, Frome, went to St Louis' School in the town before going on to secondary education in Trowbridge.

She had won a place to study philosophy at Heathrop College in London.

During her illness she underwent radiotherapy, chemotherapy and 16 operations, but her parents said she never gave up and always looked ahead to the next treatment she could try.

Right from the start she fought her illness, achieving five A* and five A grade GCSEs despite learning she might have cancer just days before she sat the exams.

In June she completed the three-mile race for life in Bristol, raising £800 for cancer care.

Just a few weeks before her death she attended her school prom and even went on holiday to Spain with her friends and to the Glastonbury festival.

Mr Denham said: "She was so determined to carry on. She arranged the holiday to Spain and she would not let her friends down even though she was so ill she could only lie on a bed for most of the time." Julia died on August 3 surrounded by her family, parents John and Cecile, brother Andrew, 23, and 20-year-old sister Nicole.

Mourners packed the church to capacity for her funeral, held at St Catherine's, Frome, on Friday.

Donations in Julia's memory can be made to Cancer Research and Clic Sargent.