Student who lost both parents to cancer graduates from university

A student who lost her mother and father to cancer has said they would be extremely proud to see her graduate.

Mollie Chapman, 24, donned University of Bristol robes on Friday morning and crossed the stage in the Wills Memorial Building with her grandmother, aunt and friends cheering her on.

She studied for a PGCE, a teacher training qualification, and is now teaching English to secondary school pupils.

Her father Pete Chapman died with leukaemia when she was 18 months old, while her mother Jane Chapman passed away from breast cancer in 2020.

Miss Chapman pictured with her mother (University of Bristol/PA)

“Mum knew I wanted to be a teacher and I know she’d be proud of me.

“It’s a really big achievement and she’s been a real inspiration to me,” Miss Chapman said.

“She’d be thinking ‘that’s my girl’, for sure.

“I have faced a lot of adversity in my short time on the planet, but I have never let that get in my way of achieving every single thing that I believe is within my reach – and if it’s not within my reach, I’ve got two angels who can give it a kick down to me to help me out.”

She added that her parents would be “insanely proud” to see her graduate.

When Miss Chapman was born, her father Pete was a few corridors away in the leukaemia ward.

His bed was wheeled across so he could hold his baby daughter.

He tragically died 18 months later at the age of 31, leaving his widow Jane Chapman with two young children.

Pete Chapman died when his daughter was just 18 months old (University of Bristol/PA)

Miss Chapman, who grew up in Yatton, Somerset, said: “She worked full time with a one-year-old and a three-year-old.

“As I got older, I realised that she sacrificed everything for us, it must have been so tough for her, she was such a trooper.”

In 2012, Miss Chapman had recently started secondary school when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and told she only had one year to live.

She said: “My mum was a fighter and she knew that she wanted to see us through school and hopefully to university.

“She managed to see the days that we both got our GCSEs, A Levels and enrolled in university, and I think there was a part of us that thought she would see the day that we graduated too.

“Unfortunately, this couldn’t be the case for us.”

In 2020, eight years after her diagnosis, Mrs Chapman was admitted to St Peter’s Hospice in north Bristol and died at the age of 54.

Miss Chapman added: “She passed in her sleep and found her place in heaven to be reunited with my dad after 19 years apart.”

Professor Tansy Jessop, the University of Bristol’s pro vice-chancellor for education and students, paid tribute to Miss Chapman’s determination to succeed.

“Mollie’s success is testament to her courage in the face of adversity,” Prof Jessop said.

“It’s not only her mum and dad who would be ‘insanely proud’ of her – we are too.

“We salute her determination and character and wish her everything of the best in her teaching career.”