A TEENAGER who found herself homeless at the age of 16 has battled the odds to become a College's leading light. Jayne Wiley admits she was heading down the wrong path when she decided to take stock of her life. The 17-year-old is now on track to pass her NVQ Level 2 hairdressing course at Hartlepool College of Further Education with flying colours and has been held up as a shining example by her proud course tutor.

Hairdressing lecturer Angela Easton said: "Jayne is an absolute credit to herself. Things could have been so different for her but she took charge of her own life, worked hard at College and is impressing her employers no end on her work placement."

Jayne, a former pupil of St Hild's School in Hartlepool, explained how her life was before she took charge of her own destiny.

She said: "I was in a pretty bad place and had a boyfriend who wasn't very good to me. We used to be on and off a lot and I would be backwards and forwards to my mum's house. In the end she said she could not watch me do this to myself and I didn't go back. He was a few years older than me and very controlling and my mum hated seeing me in that situation, but when you are that age you always think you know best. When I did eventually leave him I ended up with two black eyes. It wasn't very nice and I didn't go to the police but it made my mind up once and for all never to go back."

Jayne went to live in a young people's hostel in Hartlepool where she says she was helped to turn her life around. She said: "I was assigned a social worker and we looked at college courses. I had been interested in hairdressing for as long as I can remember and enrolled at Hartlepool College of Further Education. Since then I have never looked back. I love my course and my placement is wonderful, I have learned so much and one day I hope to work in Australia and experience a bit of the world."

Jayne, who works part-time in Hartlepool salon Bombshell as part of her studies, is not bitter for her traumatic early life experiences. She smiled: "I would not change anything that has happened to me as it has made me the person I am. It would have been easy to get pregnant and let the council look after me or get into crime and drugs but this way I am in control of my own destiny and I can decide how I want my life to go."