Alice is top of the tree at Myerscough College

Alice Martin, who hails from Suffolk but who has lived in the Garstang area for the past two years, has gained a first class BSc honours degree in arboriculture and the student of the year award for her course.

A delighted Alice is particularly pleased with her success at Myerscough College, near Preston, as she has had to battle with dyslexia since she was a child.

She learned about her first class degree last week and was later told about her student of the year gong..

She said: “The student of the year award couldn’t have been a better cherry on top of the icing and cake!”

Alice, who has worked in horticulture and tree management for more than 30 years, had been keen to obtain a degree as, in the 1980s when she passed her National Diploma in arboriculture, the diploma was the highest qualification in the subject at the time.

In 2017 she made the tough decision to leave her 22-year-old daughter Megs and husband Craig back home in Suffolk and enrolled at Myerscough.

The recent “double honours” are not her first achievements at Myerscough - her first two years / foundation studies resulted in her achieving an outstanding student award for arboriculture.

While living in Garstang Alice made numerous friends, including the late Ben Andrews, a retired lecturer in tree studies, who had taught at Myerscough.

As well as being a popular student on the Myerscough campus she has become well known in folk / live musical circles in Lancashire, occasionally taking time out from studying for gigs in Garstang, Barnacre, Preston and Glasson Dock.

Alice, who is now back with her family in East Anglia, hopes to return to Garstang for her graduation and a celebration party once the Covid-19 restrictions are relaxed.

The citation on her certificate, signed by Myerscough principal Alison Robinson, says: “She will be a fantastic ambassador for Myerscough in whatever she does next.”