To get two As and a C at ‘A’ level is impressive for any student, but for Archie Veale to have achieved these results is remarkable.
The Castle Rushen High School student is – without any exaggeration – lucky to be alive, never mind sitting mind-stretching exams.
In March 2014 after complaining about persistent back ache, he grew seriously ill having developed septicaemia and was airlifted to Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool. Facing multiple organ failure, he spent 47 days in intensive care and a further four months in hospital.
At one stage he was linked to a bypass machine used in cardiac surgery. Surgeons had to cut down his inner and outer thigh to relieve the pressure building up on his leg muscles.
There were fears that he would have his leg amputated.
By September 2014 he was back part-time at school, walking with the aid of crutches.
Since then the 18-year-old has caught up on his studies, gained seven GCSEs plus these latest results – an A and C in AS level geography and maths and an A in A level product design.
‘I am extremely proud of my result and to be quite honest, very surprised,’ he said.
‘I was struggling with my AS maths greatly but with a lot of combined help from my teachers, family and friends the hard work has obviously paid off,’ he said.
‘From right back in 2014 when I was in Alder Hey, and through the two years which have followed I have missed a lot of school hours due to appointments, physio sessions and a few shorter hospital admissions which has made studying difficult.
‘I have overcome this with great amounts of generosity from many of my teachers who took the time to sit with me in lunchtimes and after school to help me to catch up on missed work.
‘Achieving my results feels like another huge step in my recovery, at many points early on into my illness my doctors weren’t sure I was going to survive let alone sit my A-level exams.’ He joked: ‘I like proving people wrong.’
Remarkably, he is just one year behind the academic peers and will complete his A-levels next year.
He said watching his friends – some of whom he has known from pre-school – leave school and not join them ‘is a very strange feeling’ but added: ‘However, I try not to see this in a negative way, I am very happy for their achievements. Being ill and my recovery is a huge part of my life, and this extra year in school is just a smaller aspect of this.’
Archie has not one iota of bitterness about his dreadful experience, in fact he said it has been ‘life enhancing’ and has influenced his career choice, he plans to study product design followed by a masters in inclusive design – designing products inherently accessible to all people, whatever their needs.
Alder Hey staff have done so much for Archie, he and his family plan to raise funds for the hospital and he hopes to be fit enough to join in the Liverpool Nightrider – a 100km bicycle ride.
The road to full recovery from nerve damage is long, but he said: ‘I really hope that one day I will make a full recovery so I can continue to make my family, my girlfriend, my friends, my “Alder-Hey-family” and my physiotherapists proud and to “repay” all the continued support and motivation they have given me.’