DON'T TELL ME I CAN'T…...graduate in my 50s

When Faith Eckersall started working after college, she didn’t plan on returning to the classroom

- FIONA KINLOCH

As I paraded across the stage at Central Hall in Westminster, I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. After opting not to go to university when I left college in 1984, I thought the chance of becoming a master in a particular field had passed me by. But here I was, in December 2015, at 50 years old, receiving my degree in Creative Writing from Brunel University.

Growing up, going to university after college wasn’t as common as it is today. With a love of writing and a keen interest in the news, I’d set my sights on becoming a journalist, so moved out of the family home in Hampshire and started an apprenticeship at a weekly paper in Berkshire.

The pay was horrendous, and I had to take on additional jobs as a cleaner and waitress to make ends meet. But writing was what I loved, and I told myself everything I was learning would one day help me to achieve my dream of writing a book.

The next few years were hectic, and after I married in the early 1990s and had my children, life got busier.