SAFFRON Lusty battled against the odds and worked all the supermarket shifts she could to win her place at university.

The 18-year-old had her sights set on a degree in criminology and was determined to get there.

Yesterday her wish came true when she discovered she had earned two A* grades in her A levels and secured her place, making her the first in her family to go to university.

Now she hopes it will inspire others, including her younger brothers and sister to pursue their dreams.

“I’m really excited. It’s something I’m really passionate about,” she told the Advertiser. “I’ve always wanted to go to university. I’m the first in my family to go. It was a challenge that I put myself up to when I started sixth form.”

Head of sixth form at Royal Wootton Bassett Academy Angela Bell was full of praise for the teen, who also gave back to the school by being a senior prefect. “She has pretty much done this all by herself. She has worked like a Trojan in school and worked outside school all the hours she could get at Sainsbury’s to get the money to go to university.”

Saffron’s A*grades were in applied law and public services. She also got a D in sociology and will be going to the University of the West of England to study criminology and law.

One of the reasons she worked so much was to be able to buy a car so she could go to university and come back to visit her family. “It was more of a stress reliever to go to work. Everyone at work is a friend and I love them. To me it isn’t work,” said Saffron. “They looked after me through my exams.”

She explained that instead of the usual half-hour breaks she was given an hour so she could study and she was given the training room in the Borough Fields store for revision because it was a quiet area.

She said her parents – her dad is an engineer at Honda and her mother works at the hospital - had been unsure but supportive. “They are really happy and excited for me. They know it is something I want to do.

“When I first said I wanted to go to university they were a bit hesitant because of the debt and no one in the family has even applied before.”

She also hopes her example will encourage her younger siblings to aim high. “It’s my job isn’t it, to inspire them?"

Fellow Bassett student Matthew Jameison is heading for a computer science degree course at Warwick. He already had a clue his results were what he wanted. “I checked the UCAS site and knew I had got in,” he explained.

He was quietly pleased with his two A*s, three As and a merit in maths, computer science, further maths and physics. "I phoned my mum. She is probably more excited than me," he said.