A mother told today of her pride in her award-winning teenage son who has stuck with his studies despite having half his brain removed after a stroke.

And battling Mark Shaw, 17, has spoken of his determination to go on to study at college when he leaves school and eventually gets a job.

Mark, of Hill Crescent, Rawdon, hit the headlines last summer when he passed all eight of his GCSEs despite being visually impaired, unable to use his left arm and only able to walk short distances.

And last September Mark returned to Guiseley School's sixth-form where he is on course to pass a one-year GNVQ foundation course in business.

The youngster has also successfully completed a week-long work experience placement with a local retailer and last autumn was named winner of the education section at the Yorkshire Young Achievers Awards 2000 ceremony in Leeds for overcoming his disabilities to achieve academic success.

The teenager's proud mother, Janice Shaw, said: "He is finding it quite hard work in the sixth-form and he's had moments when he's been ready to pack it all in but he's kept at it. I'm so proud of him and think he's doing exceptionally well considering the problems he's had.

"To get this far is incredible when you think that ten years or so ago he had no real life and was suffering fit after fit.''

Mark said: "It is hard work but I didn't expect it to be anything else. I am enjoying it and the school has helped me a lot.

"I'm planning to leave school in the summer and hope to go on to Park Lane College in Leeds to do a two-year GNVQ in office studies. I want to get a qualification so I can go into some sort of office-based work with computers.''

The teenager's difficulties began when he suffered a stroke at the age of four.

Within a month he started suffering epileptic fits and two years later he was diagnosed with the rare condition Rasmussens Encephalitus, which is normally caused by a virus and results in the inflammation of half the brain.

In 1991, seven months after his seventh birthday, surgeons performed a six-hour operation - at the time only the eighth of its kind to be carried out in this country - to remove the right hand side of Mark's brain in a bid to control his fits and prevent severe dementia and further paralysis.

Although he has not suffered any major fits since his operation Mark still has an average of 30 and up to 275 "absence seizures'', episodes which last about a minute and look like daydreaming but are actually temporary lapses in awareness - every day.