A student at a top Masvingo private school has defied odds after scoring the best Cambridge O Level results by a female learner in the institution’s history despite having been hospitalised with serious health complications on the eve of the 2024 final examinations.
Tafadzwa Khumo Gammon passed 11 subjects with A+ grades in what has been described as the best in the history of Riverton Academy. She was the best perfoming student overall from last year’s cohort.
Tafadzwa (15) nearly failed to sit for the examinations after she was admitted in hospital for five days for urgent medical attention.
Her medical report indicated that she had blisters, ulcers all over her body, suffered a series of headaches, loss of concentration and memory loss after she collapsed at school.
Tafadzwa was admitted at a hospital in Masvingo, and was discharged just four days before her first examination.
She was born and bred in Botswana, where she did her primary education before moving to Riverton.
“For someone who never had last minute preparations and suffered trauma to be discharged from a hospital bed and achieve such outstanding results and be the highest at Riverton is amazing,” her father, Desire Kgosikgolo Gammon, told Standard People.
He said his daughter wanted to study medicine and specialise in neurosurgery.
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“I have five daughters and as a father, I am elated beyond measure, I am speechless,” he said.
“Tafadzwa is over the moon. She sees her dreams are now near grasp and she wants to maintain the same level of academic excellence until she completes her A Level.”
According to Gammon, there was panic after his daughter was hospitalised.
“It drained her energy,” he said.
“My conspiracy theory tells me it could have been a spiritual attack because she couldn't eat. She had sores in the mouth and throat and was vomiting as well.
“But by the grace of God, she prevailed. We had to travel to Masvingo and spent a whole week there nursing her until she got back to her best self.”
