Weymouth supergran's degree delight

7:53am Saturday 1st November 2008

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A GRANDMOTHER with a passion for fashion has graduated from university after overcoming a heart attack and a freak accident.

Sheila Kerrigan, 63, of Preston, Weymouth, was so determined to finish her degree that she returned to lectures at Somerset College of Arts and Technology with a stent in her heart to keep an artery open.

Mature student Sheila also suffered a freak accident during her course in which her big toe was severed from her foot.

In spite of all this, Sheila graduated last week with a degree in design, fashion and textiles in front of her proud family.

She said: “Things can be very stressful but you have to keep going in life.

“You have to be focused and not get put off by things.” Sheila’s youngest son Christopher suggested that she return to education after years of bringing up a family and caring for her elderly parents.

Aged 58, Sheila enrolled in a part-time arts foundation course at Weymouth College and then began her degree at the age of 60.

“I didn’t want to stop once I started studying. It just fires up inside you and it becomes so exciting.

“I arrived at the university with my portfolio and saw so many young girls. They became good friends of mine and were so accepting and supportive,” she said.

Sheila was driven to Taunton every day for her lectures by her husband Joseph. But at the end of her first year, Sheila was getting clothes out of the dryer when she tripped and completely severed her left big toe.

She said: “I kept calm and picked it up and put it back on and wrapped it in a clean pair of knickers to stop the bleeding.”

After recovering from an operation to save her toe and then dealing with the death of her father, Sheila suffered another major setback at the end of her second year.

“I felt really poorly in class and at first I thought it was indigestion.

“The other students helped me out into the corridor and got me into hospital,” she said.

Doctors told Sheila that she’d had a heart attack and diagnosed her with coronary heart disease.

But she ignored her family’s pleas to give up her studies and returned to university to complete her degree.

Her dedication was rewarded with a Student of the Year award from her university.

Sheila has already displayed her work in two shows and has ambition is to become a freelance fabric designer.

She also plans to complete an MA. She said: “As long as I’m breathing, I’ll carry on doing this.

“My graduation was one of the greatest days of my life.

“When you get to my age you realise that opportunities are out there and you have to go and grab them.”