A STUDENT has graduated with a First Class degree – while breastfeeding her daughter after falling pregnant at the end of her first year of university.
Emily Hattersley, 23, graduated with the highest honour in her Media and Communications degree from Cardiff University, with daughter, Daisy Elizabeth Gillard, and partner, Owen Gillard, by her side.
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But it hasn’t been an easy road for Emily, who lost her dad aged nine, underwent spinal surgery and was made homeless at 16.
Despite all her setbacks, Emily says she’s “stubborn”, and was determined to push through.
She told The Tab: “My dad died when I was nine, and I was made homeless at 16, following my first spinal surgery.
“During this time I also had to complete my GCSEs. Studying while being homeless came with its challenges.
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“Mental health issues left me with barely enough energy to attend college, which then further affected me mentally as I felt I wasn’t achieving anything, and was just in a stage of limbo.
“After a year of sofa-surfing at friend’s house, I decided that I would put myself into care. I felt I didn’t want to be a burden on them any longer.
“I felt like it would be nice for someone to look after me for a change, so I could focus on my studies.”
She was given a flat by the council so she could complete her studies, and she managed to pass her A-levels, getting the ABC needed to go to university.
Emily, from Rhondda Cynon Taf, said: “At this time I had to learn how to take care of myself and how to budget.
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“My flat was far away from anyone, and I very often didn’t have enough spare money to catch public transport to see my friends or my partner.
“I also didn’t have the funds to pay for internet, so this was a very isolating time – but it did mean that I had a lot of time to spend on my A-Level coursework.”
In 2016 she started her university course, and at the end of the first year enrolled on an internship.
But when a hangover didn’t get any better, she knew something wasn’t right.
Emily said: “After a night out, I had a hangover that lasted for three days, so I knew something wasn’t right.”
She took a pregnancy test, and was shocked by the results.
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The new mum said: “The two pink lines were as clear as day and I immediately got tunnel vision. I started hyperventilating and had to sit down.
“I could see everything I’d done in my life flash before my eyes.
“I knew the statistics of students completing their degrees with babies were low. I knew I had a tough decision to make.”
She told her boyfriend, Owen, and Emily says they “cried together”.
Emily said: “We spent the next few days just talking about what we were going to do, and discussed every possible outcome, as you have to in these situations.
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“Four days after we found out, we had just had a big cry and fallen asleep together, and my partner looked up at me and said ‘We can do this Em’. I’ll never forget those words.
“My first semester at Cardiff was a strange one.”
Deciding to continue her studies, Emily kept her pregnancy from her friends, for fear of being judged.
She was she was “lucky” as she didn’t show until a few weeks before she gave birth.
Emily explained: “I was afraid of the judgement, and I didn’t want to be laughed at when I told them my plan to finish the rest of uni with a baby.
“My friends from university would invite me to party with them, and I would make up different excuses not to go, so I wouldn’t have to explain why I wasn’t drinking.
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“I did feel lonely a lot of the time, as a lot of socialisation in university is through going out and having a drink.
“Luckily, though, my partner always made an effort to make me feel special, and I realised that I would have plenty of time to socialise after the baby was born.”
But she knew things would be different after becoming a mum, and she set about trying to do as much work as she could before the baby arrived.
Emily said: “Of course, the idea of dropping out of university was always in the back of my mind.
“We lived quite far away from my uni building while I was pregnant, and it would take me 40 minutes to walk there in the morning, which made 9am lectures especially painful.
“While I was pregnant, I stayed long hours in the library after my contact hours, and stayed up all night sometimes to finish my assignments.
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“In my head, I wanted to get the best grades as I could before she was born, so it would help if having a baby had a detrimental affect on my grades.”
But after Daisy was born, Emily thought about dropping out.
She said: “If I’m honest though, the time I most thought I would quit was after she was born.
“I was allowed to take out extenuating circumstances straight after she was born, so I could complete my modules in the August resit period.”
Despite being given some extra time, being a new mum was harder than she had anticipated.
Emily said: “I didn’t realise how hard this would be.
“I was breastfeeding every two hours, but still had deadlines looming, and my partner needed to go to work, and focus on his own dissertation in the day times.”
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Despite all the obstacles, Emily managed to graduate with a first, with Daisy and Owen there to cheer her on.
She shared some words of advice for anyone in a tough situation, saying: “Don’t overthink anything.
“Nothing is permanent, any stress you are under will end eventually, so just ride it out and keep your head up.
“But also, I’d advise to not be afraid of asking for help. We all struggle, but those that succeed are the ones that shared their problems and got help from others.
“And my final piece of advice would be to never regret anything that happened in your past.
“I see everything that has happened to me as a learning experience that has made me the person I am today.
“Life is a journey of personal growth, and every experience is a lesson.”
Meanwhile this boyfriend decided to propose to his girlfriend as she graduated.
This mum was also raging after her mother-in-law wrote her a ‘patronising’ packing list for her kid’s holiday.
In other parenting news, we revealed the kids with the naughtiest names – so is yours on the list?
