THE road to success has been tough for an award-winning businesswoman who battled against the odds to reach her goal.

After leaving school without any qualifications, Jean Ross has transformed herself into one of most respected trainers in the region's business world.

Mrs Ross, 39, from Crook, owns Care Training Services, which trains people for work in health and social care. She is also an internal and external verifier for two awarding bodies.

Her success was recognised when she was the only individual out of eight regional winners of a National Training Award at a ceremony in Newcastle.

This led to an invitation to the winners' ceremony in London where she was the only North-East entrant to receive an award from Carol Vorderman.

Twenty years ago, however, her future must have seemed as bleak as her past.

After leaving school without even taking an exam she fell pregnant at 18 and was forced to bring up her daughter alone on a run down council estate.

It was only after finding happiness with her husband, Trevor, and having two more children that her luck changed.

She found a job caring for people with learning difficulties with a supportive employer and, by 1997, she had achieved NVQ Level 3 in Mental Health Care.

She gained further college qualifications despite the illness and death of her father and her husband's and her own health problems, all the time developing a passion for training others.

She said: "From being an isolated, lonely individual in a no-hope situation, I would like to think that I am not only someone who can help develop others, but help them realise their true potential and inspire them to greater achievements."