Beck Collett graduated in 2022 with a Master’s in Creative Writing from The Open University in Wales, after also studying for her undergraduate degree with the OU.

Beck left school at 16 after finishing her GCSEs. Her homelife wasn’t always stable, and she didn’t feel that she had the time to properly prepare for her education. She found work in a local supermarket and moved into her own home at 18. At 32, she started a new career in horticulture.

‘Though my husband had raised the idea of me returning to studying many times over the years, it was something I’d always dismissed,’ says Beck. ‘That part of my life was done, how could I – with basic GCSEs – even think of going into a degree?

‘I had a foothold in a new industry, and I was intent on climbing to the top. After six months, I was made a departmental manager, and everything was going great. And then it wasn’t.’

It was soon after leaving her old job that Beck noticed changes in her health, eventually receiving a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in early 2007. After a few months coming to terms with the news, her husband John encouraged her to think about studying. It was then, as if by magic, a leaflet advertising the OU popped out of a magazine.

‘Looking back at that time, I don’t know that I could have got through without that having happened,’ says Beck. ‘I felt so useless, so without purpose, and all of a sudden to have this helping hand appear at the exact right moment was miraculous.’

Starting an undergraduate degree following her diagnosis took some adjustment for Beck, especially after so many years since her GCSEs.

 ‘Every day I learnt something new or found myself thinking differently about things I’d always believed. In the main, these were subjects connected to things I’d read in the course materials, but I found myself changing as a person as I went along.

‘There were definitely times where I felt like quitting (particularly early in the undergraduate degree) and lost confidence in my abilities and dreams. But there was always somebody there to encourage me, to urge me ever onwards. I know that without the support from tutors and my fellow students, I would not have finished either degree I took.’

After completing her Master’s degree in 2022, Beck graduated at the OU’s Wales graduation ceremony at the ICC in Newport.  She continues to write creatively, and often contributes to publications for the MS Society Cymru.

"Every day I learnt something new or found myself thinking differently about things I’d always believed. I found myself changing as a person."