NEW graduate Carys Thurlby has achieved her degree against all odds, while battling a debilitating illness and enduring nine operations.

The ex-King's School pupil, now aged 22, had just started the second year of her teaching degree at Roehampton University, Surrey, when she was rushed to hospital with severe abdominal pains.

Three days later, she was diagnosed with endometriosis - a condition in which cells that normally line the uterus appear in other parts of the body - and given a laparoscopy, a small incision to examine the abdominal cavity, the first of many she was to receive in the next few years.

"I tried to carry on with teacher training, but I was exhausting myself, so I took the rest of the year off," said Carys.

She started her second year again, but transferred to education after teaching practice proved too much of an ordeal.

"I was coming home in tears because I was so exhausted from the pain and everything," she said.

"My husband (former King's School pupil David Thurlby) suggested I should take it easy after lunch, but I couldn't do that while controlling a class of 30 six-year-olds."

After her third laparoscopy she woke up one morning in agony and was rushed to hospital with internal bleeding and had to be resuscitated.

Major surgery followed and she spent Christmas 2004 in hospital, but despite everything, she carried on with her studies. Now she has come through her fourth year with flying colours and gained a very creditable 2.1.

Having just had her ninth operation, she vowed: "I'm not going to hospital again, unless it is to have a baby."

She added: "I have got the most amazing husband, family and friends, who have always been there for me, giving practical and emotional help."

Her proud mum Linda Bromyard, from Perdiswell, said: "She has been really poorly and was in a wheelchair at one time, but she has tremendous strength of will."