Showman's daughter becomes first Traveller to attend Cambridge University... and graduates with a FIRST in History

From the Daily Mail

She grew up in a caravan, sold toffee apples on her mother’s fairground stall and never completed a full school year.

Yet Zoah Hedges-Stocks - who made history by becoming the first Traveller to study at Cambridge University - has exceeded her highest expectations by achieving a first class degree.

While past generations of her family could not read or write, Miss Hedges-Stocks dreamed of attending Cambridge after working on the fairground there as a youngster during the annual May Ball.

She went to school in Suffolk but missed the summer term each year to travel to fairs across East Anglia.

Despite this she achieved top grades in her GCSEs and was offered a place at the all-female Murray Edwards College on condition of gaining three A grades at A-level.

She was allowed in despite slipping to a B in one of her subjects.

'I still can't quite believe I have got a First,' she said. 'It has been a lot of hours and a lot of essays. All my family and friends are really pleased for me and it is nice to feel I have everyone’s support.

'I’ve never experienced any snobbery about my background at Cambridge and everyone has been really welcoming. It has been the most amazing four years, hard work, but great fun.'

Zoah, who wants to be a journalist, grew up in a caravan and spent every summer term working on her mother's food van selling burgers, toffee apples and candy floss to fair-goers.

But even though she missed a lot of school she excelled academically, passing her GCSEs and getting top grades at A-level.

She was then accepted onto a summer school programme at Eton for potential Oxbridge students, which made her more determined than ever to get to Cambridge.

Zoah was given a straight-As offer and secured two, but missed out on an A in Philosophy and Ethics by just 11 marks.

'I called the college straight away and they said they’d let me know the next day,' she said. 'It was the most nerve-racking 24 hours of my life. When they called to say I got a place I cried.'

Now she will be graduating from the world-renowned university on Saturday with a First in History, after studying for four years at Murray Edwards College.

During her time at the university she was chosen twice to be editor of the student newspaper The Cambridge Student.

But at the beginning of her third year in January 2012 she started suffering from chronic fatigue and had to go home and recover.

'I was really ill and at the time I wondered if I would manage to go back, but thankfully I did,' said Zoah.

She returned to complete her final year in September 2012 and excelled in her course.

Her mother Bernice and her grandparents will be at her graduation ceremony on Saturday.

Berenice said: 'I am so proud of Zoah and just couldn’t take it in when she said she had a First. I cried for two days.'

'No one else in our community has ever been to university and I think she has done amazingly well. I’ve got my outfit ready for Saturday, it will be so exciting, I know I'll be in tears.'

Zoah, whose Traveller ancestors date back to 1821, lived in a caravan with her mother until she was 14, at which point Berenice bought a trailer.

She went to her local school but missed the summer term each year to travel with her family to fairs across East Anglia.

She helped her mum run the burger van, while her uncle managed a set of dodgems, inherited from her grandfather.

Zoah said working at the fair was incredibly hard work, with 14 hour days and fat burns from frying burgers.

One of her favourite destinations to work at was always the Midsummer Fair in Cambridge, where she has many happy childhood memories.

'The reason I wanted to go to Cambridge University in the first place was because it was the only university I knew,' she said.

'When I went to the open day at Cambridge with my mum I didn't even know what a university would look like.'

Zoah has now been offered a place on a journalism training course, which starts in January.