A mother of four who had no qualifications has attained a first class law degree after starting her studies to provide for her family when her husband was struck down with cancer.

When Ruth Wood's husband was told his illness had come back after being given the all-clear she had no idea how she was going to be able to support her children. So she enrolled at the Open University, studying social sciences and then law.

Now, after five years, not only has she got a first class Bachelor of Law degree, but husband Mark has been given the all-clear again.

Ruth was a part-time carer with few qualifications to show from her time at Ilkley Grammar School when she decided to get in touch with the Open University (OU) about doing a course.

"I started doing it because I panicked about money and needed something to take my mind off everything that was going on," she said.

Mark, 42, had been treated for Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 1995, but it had gone away. When it came back in 1998, it was in a much more severe form needing debilitating treatment including chemotherapy. "When the cancer came back I panicked because he was really really poorly - and his money went on half pay," said 43-year-old Ruth.

While he was being treated at Cookridge Hospital, Leeds, Ruth studied in evenings after putting the children to bed at the family home off Skipton Road, Ilkley.

But when she received her first batch of books for the law course, one look at the massive weight of reading almost frightened her into sending them straight back.

The only thing that stopped her dropping out was the fact that she had received financial help from the OU and felt she should carry on to repay the debt.

"When I went for my first tutorial I thought they were all clever," she said. "But later when I realised we were all in the same boat I made friends and set up support groups."

As her confidence grew and she prospered on the course, there was good news on the medical front. Her husband responded to treatment and eventually went back to work, finally being given the all-clear in August last year.

Not much later Ruth received the news that she had, after five years of study, been awarded a first class Bachelor of Law degree.

While awaiting her results she had applied and got a job as a police support officer at Pudsey, a position she loves and which allows her to dispense legal advice to members of the public.

Ruth now has to decide whether she wants to stay on with the police or continue her studies to become a lawyer. "I am in the middle of deciding what to do but have enrolled with an agency looking at legal work," she said.

In January, she began a course of further study for a Master's Degree in social policy and criminology.

But for the moment she is looking forward to the degree ceremony at the Harrogate International Centre on Saturday, April 3, which she will attend with Mark and Justine, eight, Alexandra, 11, Kate, 13, and Benn, 22.