Rebuilding Confidence Through Access to HE

When Kitty Cooper enrolled on the Access to HE Diploma in Humanities and Social Sciences with East Sussex College’s E-Learning team, she was taking an important step towards rebuilding her life.

Kitty began the course in February 2025 and completed it 12 months later in February 2026. But her journey back into learning hasn’t been straightforward.

“When I was 16 I got a virus and my immune system destroyed most of my neural pathways and overnight I went from normality to being unable to do almost everything,” said Kitty. “For the last 5 years, balancing daily symptoms and recovery has been a full time job. I relearned to sit, then stand and in the last year, I have managed to progress to walking with a crutch.”

After having to leave her A-Levels just half a term in, education felt out of reach for a long time.

“The course helped my recovery more than anything. I have always been lucky to be naturally academically comfortable but I had to leave education just a half term into my A-Levels. I was not in the condition to even attempt education for a while and in that break, a lot of my confidence in my abilities was lost.”

Starting the Access course was a big step. At first, it wasn’t easy.

“At first I felt I would be unable to cope with the course as the first couple units increased my symptoms and made energy management harder,” said Kitty. “However, over time I not only rediscovered my academic skills, I learned how to pace my symptoms in the face of deadlines and my confidence grew enormously.”

As she months passed, something shifted. Studying helped her rediscover her academic ability and strengthened her recovery.

“This had a positive knock-on effect on my overall recovery. I do not think it is a coincidence that last year I progressed more than all the previous four put together. It has restored my faith that I will one day be able to return to in-person education whether that is this September or the following one.”

Kitty’s determination and hard work has paid off. She currently has unconditional offers from all five of the universities she has applied to and is planning to progress to the University of Sussex to study one of their BA Film Studies courses. She has offers for three different undergraduate Film programmes and is deciding which path to take. 

She is also waiting to hear back about a writing scholarship with Curtis Brown Creative. If successful, she plans to defer university for a year to complete the scholarship first.

Alongside preparing for her next step, Kitty is continuing to write. In the time freed up by completing her course, she is working on a novel based on journal extracts she kept during the first three years of her illness. She hopes it will one day be published and provide an authentic voice to teenage chronic illness.

For Kitty, the online Access to HE Diploma has been more than a qualification. It has marked a year of progress - one in which she advanced further in her recovery than in the previous four combined, while moving closer to her academic ambitions.