Dawn can write only by blinking but has earned two OU degrees
LIKE everyone who returns to studying later in life, Dawn Faizey-Webster has moments she wants to pack it in.
She has two Open University degrees – a BA in ancient history and an MA in history of art – and is in the middle of a PhD in architectural history.
The 45-year-old admits: ‘I always start off thinking, “How on earth am I going to do this?” But if you keep going before you know it, you’ve done it, and you feel great.’
Dawn’s challenges are in a different league to most people’s. When she was 31 and pregnant with son Alexander, she suffered a stroke that left her with ‘locked in’ syndrome.
She is almost totally paralysed, unable to talk, or live independently.
Her sole means of communication is by blinking. With a laptop that translates eye movements into text, it can take her a minute to type a word, and three weeks to complete an exam.
But the former IT teacher, who had a degree in psychology and computers from Wolverhampton University, said: ‘I wanted to prove to myself and others that I was still Dawn. I’m unable to talk or move but I’m not Mrs Nobody. I wanted to make the point that I shouldn’t be underestimated.’
Dawn is supported by parents Alec and Shirley, and brother Mark. Their devotion is all the more poignant because her then husband could not cope, leaving her feeling ‘betrayed’.
For Dawn the Open University, with its flexible approach, was a godsend. Alexander lives with his dad but visits her in Staffordshire every other weekend. She is, perhaps, giving the 15-year-old the greatest life lesson of all: ‘Never give up.’