Vicky's headmistress recalls her as 'A bright light.' Good at everything Vicky revels in meeting the challenge of excelling. Fear of failure also drives her on and it is during these school years that she evolves her way of concentrated application to her studies, never wasting a moment of time, a diligence that is to stand her in good stead for the rest of her life.

The school photograph of 1964 with its massed ranks of boys on one side and girls on the other, shows Vicky standing amidst her friends with head held high, straight-backed and smiling confidently into the camera, every inch an English schoolgirl. She wore her thick black hair shoulder length and although everyone admired her and liked her, she was well known for not being a flirt. Susie was very strict with her two older daughters. They were not allowed to go to coffee bars, parties or have boyfriends. The teenage Vicky was outwardly an eager, enthusiastic joiner, a keen Guide, a girl with `a great giggle' and someone who was always willing to take her part in the team; inside there was a private Vicky who shrank from revealing too much of herself. She was vulnerable and shy.

Her headmistress recalls her as 'a bright light.' Vicky shone at everything. She was a scholar who regularly scored marks in the nineties. She was a talented musician, playing the guitar (which she taught herself) and the violin as well as the piano in which she attained Grade VIII level. As an athlete she was exceptional, winning several sprint records and playing hockey for the county.

`She was so good at everything and so nice with it. She did it so effortlessly and with such talent that we never felt jealous of her.'
This verdict from one of her school friends sums up what everyone who knew Vicky in those days, teachers included, has said about her

Throughout her years of growing up Vicky was possessed by a deep seated sense of inferiority. Was she clever? Was she good? Was she lovable? How could she know since no one seemed willing to tell her she was? At first she felt this complex keenly in relation to her brothers and sisters; later on it would be towards her school mates and then her fellow undergraduates.

Vicky was determined to excel because she saw this as the best way to attract and hold the attention for which she longed. Success would please her parents and make her feel good. It told the world that she was as good as her siblings. Everyone would applaud her and recognise her worth. Her self-confidence only started to blossom towards the end of her university career when prizes and recognition were heaped upon her.

Vicky thrived on challenge. She used it to defy her intense fear of failure, a fear which haunted her, as she didn't mind admitting, right to the end of her life; yet in her short span she was to achieve more than most people manage in a life twice as long. Like so many high achievers, she almost craved that fear to spur her on to ever greater heights. Each subsequent victory in her life would taste the sweeter just because it signified that once again she had banished the shadow of defeat.

Vicky appeared to do everything so easily; in reality all her achievements were backed by sustained effort and applied thinking. `Quiet, methodical and studious' is how she is remembered by one classmate. These were characteristics which she had developed from early school days and they were to stand her in good stead as she worked her way through school, university and medical school.

Lawn mowing was usually Vicky's responsibility and after Tina left home Vicky also took over her role helping out with shopping and cleaning - without grumbling and without letting the extra burden affect her studies. One friend still uses her as a point of reference. `When someone says to me, `you can't do everything,' I have to say, `but I know someone who could and did.'

Her only real setback in those years was to be turned down on her first application for a place at Cambridge. This was a terrible blow. Vicky, so unused to failure, was devastated by the perceived humiliation. True to character she knew she must rise to the challenge so she insisted on trying again. Encouraged by her good A- level results and the support of just one teacher, she stayed on for a further term in the VI form. To her great joy she was accepted for Girton. A new life awaited her.