Helping animals is all one Barns Green girl has ever wanted to do, but her veterinary university dream may fall at the first hurdle.
Ashton Tansey, 21, of Finians Field, has a place at Liverpool University in September to study Veterinary Science, but is not entitled to funding or loans to help her pay the £21,800 tuition fees a year because she already has a degree-level qualification.
After not getting the grades from The Weald in Billingshurst she did a three-year Equine Sciences degree between Oxford Brooks and Cirencester as a way of getting into veterinary college.
“I’m utterly determined because this is my ultimate goal and I want to pursue that,” she said.
“The fees are £21,800 a year, and I have to pay the first instalment in September. I might have to see if the university will defer me, but I do not want to give up that easily.
“I want to find it. Somehow I want to find the first instalment.”
Even working nights during what is a very demanding 9-5 course would not come close to raising the money and her parents are unable to offer her much assistance; her dad distributes goods to London businesses and her mother works in pubs.
While Ashton has a fondness for helping all animals, horses are her first love, as for most of her life as her brother is in show jumping, while she also owns a rescued Chihuahua called Cheech.
When the email came through offering her the place at Liverpool, she was busy lambing.
She explained: “I could not even begin to describe how happy I was.”
She is currently splitting time between working as a groom at Manor Hill Farm in Shillinglee, and bar and other jobs at Sumners Ponds Cafe in Barns Green and the George and Dragon in Shipley.
She added: “Being able to pursue my dream if anyone can help or support me it would be the absolute world to me and I just hope there is someone out there who can help me because I can not do it on my own.
“This is my passion. This is what I want to do. If someone can help me reach that I would be eternally grateful.”
To offer help or advice email ashtontansey@homail.co.uk