Laura McManus is finally living the childhood dream she had once believed out of reach after starting work as a junior doctor.
Her earliest ambition was to become a medic so that she could help her dad Chris, a hydrocephalus sufferer like her.
But a troubled start to life seemed to have made her goal unattainable.
Laura grew up on a crime-ravaged council estate and was three when her heroin addict mum Jayne died aged 21.
After becoming a rebellious tearaway, she was expelled from school at 15, failed her GCSEs and got pregnant at 16.
She moved around hostels with a boyfriend then found herself alone with her son Byron – picking up part-time work to supplement meagre benefits.
Then, aged 23, Laura decided to defy the odds and build a better life for them.
She got her GCSEs and A-levels and then enrolled at medical school. And this summer she graduated.
Now 31 and working on wards and in A&E, Laura is the inspirational proof that anyone can realise their dream.
She said: “It has been really emotional but I am over the moon I have finally qualified as Dr McManus. I want to be an example to kids from tough backgrounds. Anything is possible. Just look at where I was and where I am now.”
Laura thinks people used to look down on her because of her background.
She said: “Mum died following a tragic accident. Growing up without a mum was difficult. My dad suffered hydrocephalus, which caused a lot of headaches, and I wanted to fix it.
“So from an early age, at primary school, I wanted to be a doctor.”
Laura grew up on the crime-ravaged Greenlands estate in Preston, Lancs, where police feared atttending calls.
She said: “It became obvious children off council estates don’t become doctors. I remember feeling the teachers knocked me, as if that would ever happen. I became angry and rebellious as I thought that was how to deal with my grief.
“I didn’t attend school much and got kicked out at 15. I sat some GCSEs but failed most of them. My dad tried to be supportive but it was very turbulent. Then I got pregnant at 16 and lived in hostels with my son, Byron, and his dad.
“I had to rely on food banks. My relationship with my son’s father was not good. We split up when my son was two.
“Once we got our own place, things began to settle. I had a few jobs, such as cleaning, working in a chippy and care work, before I decided to make a better life for myself and my son.”
Some of Laura’s contemporaries are dead through drug abuse or gang violence, others are behind bars.
When she walks through Preston she still sees distant relatives taking drugs and begging. It is a world away from her new life working at the Royal Preston Hospital. Laura said: “Those people could have been me. The one saving grace in my life was my dad.
“He and my mum lived on the estate and met but dad joined the Army. That gave him a different perspective.
“It was tough for dad bringing me up by himself. He had to quit the Army due to a brain condition. He got a good job and when he wasn’t working hard for us he was trying to keep me out of trouble. I was a difficult child and the environment on the estate didn’t help.”
Laura got a council place for her and Byron, now 13, but only after she and her boyfriend spent two years in hostels.
She then spent years working in part-time jobs. But she always wanted more out of life. Laura said: “I wanted to do something with science, it was always my passion. But medicine still felt like it wasn’t within the reach of someone like myself.”
When she looked into getting qualifications aged 23, she had never even heard of A-levels. But she set her sights on biology, maths and chemistry.
Preston College was reluctant to let her study without any GCSEs but relented when she passed an aptitude test.
Even at this stage, Laura did not think she could become a doctor – until she told her tutor of her childhood wish to become one so that she could help her dad.
Laura recalled: “She said, ‘You can, you are doing the right A-levels to go to medical school.’ It never entered my head the subjects could lead to being a doctor.
“Staff at Preston College gave me a chance to prove myself. Without them I wouldn’t have got to medical school.” Laura was encouraged to apply for medical school at the start of her second year. She said: “They demanded five GCSEs plus an additional A-level, all to be taken and passed in my second year.”
She could not find time to be taught the GCSEs formally, study for her A-levels and care for Byron. So she swotted up by herself using subject guides from WH Smith – and ended up with A or A* grades in everything, winning a place at Lancaster University to study medicine.
Laura said: “I found it tough there, not because I was unintelligent but because I had missed out on so much of my education. I hadn’t read enough and never learned to write essays.
“I struggled with the vocabulary and then they diagnosed me as having dyslexia, then I got more support.” Laura said that while setting tough requirements, the medical school had been supportive helping her qualify.
She said: “Not many people from working class backgrounds attend medical school and there was only one other student like me, from a council estate.
“I worked hard and any spare time I had was spent looking after my son. In my first year I had a cancer scare and had my breast ducts removed. Luckily it was not cancer. I didn’t have much time off as I was terrified of failing my exams.
“I lost a few family members and in my third year I was evicted. I was in a privately rented house the landlord needed back, so I had to move in with my dad.
“Staff at Lancaster Medical School have supported me all the way. There have been a lot of tears, especially during exams. I fainted twice.”
Tom Fisher, Laura’s tutor for four years, said: “She is a very driven and talented young woman. I think she has the chance of a great future in medicine.” But as if life has not knocked Laura around enough, she was recently diagnosed with arthritis in her hands and feet. It could limit any ambition to be a surgeon but she is determined to forge a career as a consultant.
Laura said: “I might have to make some adjustments but I’m determined to carry on, having got this far against the odds.”
And dad Chris is delighted to see how far she has come. The 55-year-old manager at an engineering firm, said: “When she was in primary school she told me, ‘Daddy, I want to be a doctor to get you well.’
“Life’s been tough but what Laura has done in becoming a doctor is all down to her determination and hard work.
“I was a proud dad the day she graduated. No one could have predicted this when she was kicked out of school at 15.”
