Coma girl celebrates A-level success after crash which killed her sister

Sophie Hennessey was left in a coma with life-threatening injuries in 2008 when she was hit by a car which killed her sister Megan, who was 11 years old at the time, on their way home from Trinity Academy in Thorne.

Sophie found out she achieved the grades she needs to secure a place at Newcastle University to study English.

She got As in economics and English, a B in history and a C in AS chemistry.

Sophie said: “I don’t think I would have got such good results if it wasn’t for my school and my friends. The staff have been so helpful. I couldn’t have done it without them.”

Academy principal Ian Brew said Sophie’s results mark the final chapter of her association with the academy, whose staff and students supported her and her family throughout her recovery and raised thousands of pounds in her sister’s name.

Megan is also remembered in a memorial in the academy reception and in a prize for art awarded at the academy’s annual presentation day.

The girls were knocked down by a car driven by their cousin Nathan Hennessey, 19, as they walked to their grandparents’ house after school.

Hennessey was jailed for four years at Sheffield Crown Court last year after admitting causing death by dangerous driving.

Sophie, who was 16 at the time of the crash, suffered a fractured skull, serious head lacerations, a lacerated kidney, and bone injuries and was in a coma for six weeks.