Plymouth Big Issue seller celebrates successful GCSE results
58-year-old Clive Rowe says he has overcome huge challenges to return to education
The number of top GCSE grades being awarded in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has hit an all-time high.
Nearly 29 percent of entries were given one of the best marks this year - up 2-point-7 percentage points on last year.
Clive Rowe is a Big Issue seller in Plymouth who also collected his results today.
The 58-year-old achieved grade 5s in English Language and Mathematics and says he is over the moon:
"I was confident in getting a 4 in Mathematics, but for English I was very sceptical - so to get 5 on both is the most amazing news for me today. In all my ideas of what I was going to achieve today, it wasn’t going to be two 5s, so it’s wonderful news."
The Big Issue seller is a well-known figure around Plymouth, often spotted outside the Theatre Royal selling the magazine.
Read more: Big Issue vendors return across Devon
Before this, Clive struggled with alcoholism for 20 years. He says it was nerve wracking to return to education, but he wanted to move forward:
"As you start to recover with sobriety, your brain becomes hungry to fill itself with something, and you get a hunger to learn. If you don’t start learning something concrete or good, then you might be tempted to go back.
"So it’s very important as part of my recovery that I start learning things that are going to be good for my future and that I’m progressing forward."
Clive's next steps will be an access course to University in Creative Arts.