A mother-of-four who overcame tragedy to complete her degree has graduated from Abertay University.
Amanda Aitken, 43, juggled raising a family with her studies to achieve a 2:1 BSC honours in Sport and Exercise Nutrition despite losing her partner in a tree felling accident midway through her final year.
Her university life was a rollercoaster, meeting her former partner in 2011 while in her 2nd year, staying up until 3am or 4am to find time to study while still spending time with her children, now aged 18, 12, 10 and 8.
However all her resolve was put to the test three and a half years into her course when she received a call during class which changed everything.
Amanda said: “His mother said you have to come home. As soon as she said it wasn’t the children I knew he had been killed at work.”
Even after the funeral Amanda couldn’t face going back to university and all her classmates graduated without her before she was persuaded to go back by Head of School Andrea Cameron.
Amanda said: “She was always encouraging me and telling me I’d achieved so much already.
“I joined a class where I didn’t know anyone, but I soon made new friends.”
Amanda even remarried, to a man she had known for 30 years, and the pair recently celebrated their first anniversary.
Amanda was joined by her parents and husband Bruce at her graduation event on Thursday and said she couldn’t have done it without the support of her family, friends and the university.
Amanda was just one of around 1,000 students who celebrated their achievements in the Caird Hall at Abertay University’s summer graduation ceremonies.
Congratulating the new graduates on their success, Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Nigel Seaton said: “You should be very proud of your achievements.
“You have all taken your own journey through Abertay.
“What you have in common is that you have all mastered your field of study, and that you have all faced some pretty tough challenges along the way.”
Honory degrees were presented to Scottish rugby international and BBC broadcaster John Beattie, the pioneering molecular and cell biologist Professor Dame Anne Glover and the developmental psychologist Professor Michael Lamb.