Hayley Watson

Hayley is a survivor.  After a terrible accident that led to an explosion in her home in 2011, Hayley suffered burns to 45% of her body. Placed in an induced coma for a week, she had surgery to graft skin from her abdomen and hips to her lower legs and feet.

Hayley’s fighting spirit saw her through the most difficult time of her life and not one to be beaten, the Central Coast Campus oral health student plunged straight back into her studies as soon as she could.

Hayley credits her studies as the shining light that helped her stay focused when mounting medical bills and ongoing pain threatened to get her down.

“As a mature age student I was adamant that nothing would stop me from achieving my goals and so I pushed through.

“I love what I do and I’ve never considered dropping out but the financial pressure on top of the anxiety and the pain from the accident has made this year the hardest. The scholarship means that there is much less to worry about.

“I am so lucky there are such thoughtful, genuinely good people out there. There need to be more scholarships like this one that embrace so many different hardships.”

To support a student like Hayley