Student excels despite illness

Galway result:A Galway student managed seven A1s despite being out of school with a rare kidney disease since the end of February.

No one was more surprised than Diarmuid Ó Ceallaigh (18) when he got his results as he was not sure if he was even going to be able to sit through the first exam.

The student, from Aille, Inverin, who plays centre back for St Mary's College in Galway city, was on the county's minor hurling and football panels last year before he was struck down with Nephrotic Syndrome, a rare condition marked by very high levels of protein in the urine. He was seriously ill in hospital for seven weeks and not well enough to return to school. He is still undergoing treatment for his illness.

"I was fairly sick for the first few weeks, but after that I started studying in hospital to pass the time and then kept studying when I went home. I didn't have any grinds, but we had covered a lot of the work at school before I got sick."

He achieved A1s in Irish, English, maths, French, economics, accountancy and physics for 600 points.

"I am hoping to do commerce at NUI Galway. I want to take a year out to get fully better and I might do a PLC for the year," he explained.

His father Tomás said: "We are very proud of Diarmuid."