A student who has been homeless for much of the last year has seen her hard work pay off after landing top grades in her A-level exams.

Astrid Rivers got an A* and two As in her A-Levels, overcoming a series of challenges most students would never have to face.

Having previously been called Amy, Astrid legally changed her name to give herself “a fresh start” after her exams.

Aged 18 and from North Walsham, the Paston College student is now looking forward to studying biology at the University of Southampton, and then a career in science.

Astrid said: “Two years ago I wanted three A*s, but now, this feels even better than that.

"If everything had gone as planned I could have done it. I think I had that potential. But life happens, doesn't it?”

Astrid moved out of her family home and into a hostel on September 20 last year.

She said: “I’d always had trouble at home, and then in first year, I went through a couple of things that were really traumatic and I suffered a lot from them.

"Then my sister left home, and that’s what I was waiting for because it meant I could go too. I put my shoes on and I left.”

Astrid said living at the hostel was difficult, but she has no regrets.

“It was not what I expected and not the safe space I was hoping for," she said.

“I remember being followed back to the hostel and feeling unsafe, and some other things happening.”

The difficult times led Astrid to drop two of her three subjects in October, planning to extend her studies by a year.

But she steeled herself for the challenge, and she continued with all three subjects at the end of March.

Astrid said: “I thought, I need to get out of here, what do I do? My only way out was A-Levels.

“When I came back it was all day, every day. It was intense."

“I’d wake up, have an hour to myself and then I would finish when I was falling asleep.”

Astrid got her A* in biology, and As for maths and chemistry.

Emma Haythornthwaite, tutorial supervisor at Paston, said: “Not many students could miss so much and still do it. But there were many of us that believed in her.”