Bereaved Plymouth student celebrates GCSE results

A teenager who lost four family members in 12 months has passed her GCSEs and secured her place in further education.

Lilli, from Plymouth, said her dad, two grandparents and her cousin had died in the last year.

Lilli, who was 15 when her dad died in August 2024, said he was a “real character.”

On Thursday, the now 16-year-old opened her results praising a Barnado’s and Co-op partnership service for providing a “safe place” that helped make her exam success possible.

She said “there was nobody else like” her dad.

“It had been really difficult going back to school after dad died.

“So in December, when I had my second round of GCSE mock exams, I was really trying to focus.

“It felt like there was a lot of pressure to succeed.”

She said she “just couldn’t believe it” when her nan died, shortly after her dad’s death.

Lilli said she tried to see the new year as an opportunity to move forward.

However her grandad died in March 2025.

“After my dad and nan died I’d started to realise how precious time was, so I’d often go up and see him [grandad] after school.

“I was supposed to be seeing him that day, but then my teacher pulled me out of my English mock exam, and I went outside to see my mum there crying.

“I didn’t know what to do – I was just numb. The third death in less than a year. I couldn’t believe it.”

Lilli’s family experienced another loss when her cousin died in July 2025.

Lilli said after she received her results she had secured her place at sixth form and would study drama, criminology and sociology.

“I used to think I wanted to be a lawyer when I grew up,” she said.

“But now I think I’d like to help young people – just like people at the Takeaway Tuesdays service have helped me.

Takeaway Tuesdays is supported by Barnardo’s and the Co-op and is where young people prepare meals and eat together.

“I don’t know what I would have done without it,” added Lilli.