SINGAPORE — One month before she was to sit for her A-Level examinations last year, Ms Brenda Ting started getting spells of stomach pains and fever, which doctors shrugged off as exam jitters.

But by the time she entered the exam hall, the 19-year-old was feeling giddy and suffering from dry heaves — a condition in which the sufferer would retch without vomiting. She was so nauseated that she was unable to finish most of her papers. “There was a lot of fear and panic (in me).”

“If the paper asked to write three or four pages, I would finish about maybe two,” she said. “I had to just stop; I could not go on.”

Two days after her last paper, she checked herself into hospital and was diagnosed with febrile illness (sudden sickness accompanied by fever), thrombocytopenia (low blood platelet count), hepatitis and acalculus cholecystitis (inflammation of the gall bladder). During her five-day stay, she was also struck with Bell’s Palsy (a form of facial paralysis caused by a nerve disorder).

“I could not blink and, when I drank water, it would spill out of my mouth.”

Yesterday, with the release of the A-Level results, the Victoria Junior College alumna could finally let out a sigh of relief: Out of five papers she sat for, she scored distinctions for three.

Ms Ting said she had to thank her family, friends and religion for getting her through the arduous period before and after her exams.

She has now fully recovered and has set about busying herself with her blog shop, managing a newly-minted two-woman acoustic band and writing. She is also interning at a public relations firm to gain some experience while waiting to know whether she will be enrolled in the course of her choice — communication studies.

Mr Aloysius Lim, also 19, was another student who beat the odds.

Diagnosed with lebers hereditary optic neuropathy (an inherited form of vision loss) when he was 13, Mr Lim needs more time and special devices, such as a CCTV magnifier, to revise and do his work.

“I have some difficulties sketching graphs precisely and keeping within the lines on foolscap paper. I sometimes write below the lines,” said the Millenia Institute graduate.

Still, he scored well enough in his A-Levels to qualify for university.

Mr Lim said his condition made him more gritty, adding that family support was also instrumental in helping him overcome the challenges.

Although he did not do “as well as expected”, he was thankful about qualifying for university, aiming to study business and enter the banking industry in future.

Outside of his studies, Mr Lim does his bit to help the disabled community — he organised trips to the Metta Home for the Disabled when he was in the Millennia Institute, for instance.

“There are others out there who need support and help, and I want to do more to help the community,” he said.

In all, 14,025 students sat for the A-Level exams last year. The percentage of school students obtaining GCE A-Level passes fell marginally — by 0.2 per cent, compared to the year before.

About nine in 10 of the cohort obtained at least three H2 passes with a pass in General Paper or Knowledge and Inquiry.