A TEENAGER who has battled with a severe sight problem all her life was celebrating yesterday after passing a string of GCSEs

Adele Waterfall-Brown, 16, gained a B, seven Cs and two Ds.

She has now achieved enough points to take A-level English Language and an advanced certificate in health and social care at Darlington College of Technology.

After collecting her results at Hummersknott School, in Darlington, yesterday, she said: "I was passing people on the way to school and they were saying you will be really pleased with your results. When I got to the office and one of the teachers read them out I was nearly in tears. I'm so pleased with them."

Adele was born with optical nerve damage which has left her being able to see only one metre ahead out of one eye and three metres out of the other.

One of the school's champion athletes was also celebrating. Karen Shield is the 17th best wheelchair-bound swimmer in the world, but neither her training schedule nor her disability prevented her passing her GCSE exams. The highest scoring student at the school was Fay Tuddenham who scored 10 A* and an A grade. Overall, the pupils scored 60 per cent five Cs or above.