Students from Dundee & Angus College celebrated success at their graduation ceremony at the Caird Hall.
The students flocked to the centre of Dundee to pick up their gowns, pose for photographs on the hall steps and make the fear-inducing walk to collect their hard-earned degrees.
Many of the students spoke of their achievements through tales of adversity, from freak injuries to chronic disability.
41-year-old Kelly Kyle, a football referee from Tayport, collected her HNC fitness health and exercise diploma, but proved that bad things really do come in threes.
Having met all her new classmates on her first day at D&A last year, she suddenly became unwell, leading her to be rushed to hospital to have an emergency appendectomy.
Things went from bad to worse when she was out running earlier this year when she tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and had to have an operation to remove cartilage from her knee.
To keep in theme with her unlucky year of studies, she recently tripped over her pet dog so had to make the graduation stage walk in crutches having broken her ankle.
“I’m sure it would sound more exciting to say I did it while ski-ing or something but actually, I fell over my boxer dog,” said the student.
“Regardless of everything that’s happened, it hasn’t put me off studying fitness, health and exercise and the lecturers have been brilliant and so understanding.
“I managed to finish the course with an A grade too so I’m very proud.”
Married couple Ayshea Brown, 35 and Ian Robbie Brown, 40, from Arbroath, graduated together despite Ayshea having been bed-ridden for the last 10 years suffering from chronic back pain.
They have been married for 12 years and started studying at the college in 2014, with Ian collecting an HND in interactive media and web development and Ayshea gaining an HNC in beauty therapy.
Ayshea said: “Every day is painful but I just pushed through to gain the qualification. I had spinal surgery just a few months before the course began so it was really difficult.
“I have three children too, Anais, who is 13, 10-year-old McKenzie, and James, five, who all have expensive hobbies so they needed looking after too!”
45-year-old single mum, Anna Donoghue, who completed an NC in social sciences, was faced with the challenge of raising her 15-year-old daughter alone at the same time as striving to better herself.
She said she couldn’t have done it without her daughter however, who she said was “absolutely superb”.
“I was doing the same job for 10 and a half years and one day I just decided that I’d had enough and I knew I could do much better for myself.
“I’m going on to do another three years at Abertay now so it isn’t over but today is such a proud day and my daughter Alanna has just been absolutely superb with me, she hasn’t complained once.”
