Jacob Lewis Student Hardship Fund

On 13th August 2015, my dreams came true. I achieved four A*s in my A-levels, including 100% in four of my seven examinations meaning that I will now read Law at Cambridge University.  You can read the story as it appeared in the Metro here. However, I owe much of this success to the extraordinary support given to me by Coleg y Cymoedd, without which this success would have been impossible. I have therefore created this page to see if funds can be raised for them to help other disadvantaged students; indeed, by donating, you could help the dreams come true of other students as mine did on August 13th. To see how much it meant to me, just watch this video.

My success has attracted a lot of media attention and I am flattered and incredibly humbled by the congratulatory messages flooding in from Venezuela to Stockholm to Edinburgh. I have been told that my story has inspired students to take up further education and that my story shows that educational achievement is about merit not money. However, at present, this is not necessarily the case. After my results I was invited to write an article on this by the Huffington Post - this can be found here. 


Coleg y Cymoedd knew that I had no permanent home with a conducive learning environment, so put me up in a B&B over the exam period. They knew that I was barely eating so gave me free meals. They helped me out with travel which would have been prohibitively expensive. They sorted overnight accommodation for me for my interview for Cambridge. Had they not have done these things, there is no doubt in my mind that I would not have achieved what I did. How many more students are out there handicapped by financial constraints who have the potential to achieve so much but who don't do so because of their deprived circumstances? Coleg y Cymoedd takes students from incredibly deprived areas and gives them a fighting chance through the excellent teaching, but sometimes more is needed. Sometimes students, through circumstances beyond their control, need financial assistance. Just read this article here by The Mirror.  I am asking you therefore for even the smallest donation to help make reality the dreams of many students like me.

I may have had a tough year, but there are people out there who have to cope with so much worse. And this is who this page is for - it's about far more than me. In fact, it isn't even about me at all - unless you explicitly say otherwise when donating, I don't receive a penny of what we receive.

I must however take this opportunity to correct a factual inaccuracy consistent in many newspapers. When newspapers pick up stories from others, it can become like a game of 'chinese whispers' and the story can be distorted. I could never live with myself if I or the College received a penny based on media exaggerations. It is important to note that I was never 'street homeless' - no fixed abode or sofa-surfer is more accurate. I stayed on many sofas, including those of families, but mainly with friends. While the amount of times I slept in a bed (that wasn't a camp bed) were indeed negligible throughout last year (it continues to this day, by the time I go to Cambridge on October 2nd it will have been almost a year since I had my own bed!) and I owned nothing more than the shirt on my back throughout College, some articles seem to imply that I did my homework in a shop doorway with a 'spare any change' sign - this is not true! Although none of them say this explicitly, it is certainly implied. However, there are students who do go through this, who have to put up with even worse than I did and this is who this page is for. I would suggest reading this article in where I clear up certain misconceptions.

The media will always exaggerate - they have papers to sell and money to make. In a way I'm grateful - the inaccuracies can be corrected and because of the publicity generated there is now a huge opportunity for you, I and the College to make a real difference to the lives of students enduring poverty simply because they want to make something of themselves. There are students out there go through much worse and need your help to thrive as I did with the help of the College.

I hope that you will consider helping me with what I hope to achieve. I can be contacted through the College whose number is 01443 662800

Kindest regards,

Jacob Lewis