DETERMINED student Imogen Dunne sat her GCSE exams and passed with eight A* and five A grades despite suffering from a crippling stomach problem.

The 16-year-old Clarendon College student had started getting stomach cramps back in May, the day before she was due to sit her first GCSE, but was determined not to let five years of studying go to waste.

She said: “The day before my first exam I didn’t go to school because I had a bad head ache and stomach pains. When I woke up the next day I didn’t feel great but I went in to school anyway to sit my exam.”

That morning the A-grade student was taken to headteacher Colin Kay’s office as her tutor noticed she looked pale, however minutes later she fainted and an ambulance was called.

She was taken home and tests were run on her and then she went to see her GP later that day, who referred her to the Royal United Hospital in Bath, where she stayed for two nights. They initially thought she had appendicitis.

The medicine she was given didn’t improve Imogen’s condition, but she went on to sit seven exams the following week.

She then struggled to enjoy a holiday to Devon during May half term.

Imogen, of Compton Close, Trowbridge, sat a maths exam in June but was crippled over in pain afterwards and went back to her GP.

Her mum Caroline Rudland, 41, said: “Her GP had referred her to the hospital after her exam but she refused to go until she had sat her exam on Friday morning.

“I couldn’t stop her doing the exams. She was determined to do them.”

She was discharged on Monday and given more medication, which didn’t improve her condition, so it was bittersweet when she picked up her exam results last week as she was unsure how she had done.

Imogen, who is the eldest of four, said: “I was so happy when I found out I had As and A*s because I was so out of it when I took the exams I didn’t know how I had done.”

Her mum cried when she found out how well she had done and treated her to an evening at Bath Thermae Spa.

Mr Kay said: “Imogen Dunne gained 11 out of her 12 passes at A* and A despite being rushed into hospital twice during the examination period.

“The only subject she did not get one of those grades for was one in which she missed the papers due to her illness.”

Imogen is still suffering from severe stomach cramps and hopes an upcoming appointment with a specialist at the RUH will solve the problem in time for starting in the sixth form.