A TEENAGER has gone from a hospital bed to outstanding GCSE success in the space of a few short months.

Cameron Paynter, 16, from Benfleet, spent a week in hospital with severe glandular fever, and missed months of classes.

But despite such a setback, he was thrilled to learn yesterday he’dmanaged a remarkable 8A*s and 3A-grade passes.

The Southend High School for Boys pupil fell ill last October and was initially thought to have tonsillitis.

Doctors later diagnosed Cameron with with a severe case of glandular fever and packed him off to Southend Hospital for a week, as his temperature soared to 42 degrees.

He said: “I was on morphine for the pain, my neck was so swollen I couldn’t really swallow anything and I lost two stones in about three weeks. There was one night when they couldn’t get my temperature down. It was up to 42 and looking back, I can see why my mum was scared for my life.”

Cameron’s condition was so serious, he ended up being given drugs more commonly used to stop chemotherapy patients being sick.

Even when he was well enough to go home, he was confined to bed – but allowed to start catching up on work he had missed at school. He said: “It took me until January or February to start feeling anything like normal again.

“I’ve put on about two and a half stones since then, which is good, as I was wasting away.

“My friends were great, coming to visit me, and the school did everything it could to keep me as up to date as I could.

“Maths was particularly tough though, given how quickly they cover things at school.

“I had to teach myself a lot of it but I’m so pleased with my results.”

Cameron’s mum, Donna, said: “We would like to thank the whole school staff – the teachers and office staff.

“They were so supportive, constantly emailing things to help keep Cameron up to date.”

Deputy head Alan Gardner said: “Just to get a decent set of results, given what Cameron has been through, would have been great, but what he has ended up with is really wonderful.”