Today is a fretful time for thousands of exam students, but for one Athlone family, the day is tinged with great sadness. Peter Hill (17), whose nickname was Mini due to his small stature, died while trying to sit the exams in hospital in June.
His parents Trevor and Diane, and sisters Rachel (15), Sarah Joy (13), and Lydia (10), are "heartbroken" at his loss.
His results will arrive at his school, Athlone Community College today. Peter Hill fought desperately to complete the exams as his health declined. He had lived a normal life despite having had a pacemaker installed.
Family, friends and teachers paint a picture of a warm, loving and inspirational young man who had a strong religious faith. In the school canteen, he was always surrounded by other pupils.
In the school yearbook, published just before his health deteriorated rapidly, they wrote: "We can all see this man being very successful. If he gets this much respect in school, he will in the real world."
Peter, from Beech Park, Athlone, sat all of his exams, except construction studies. He started the exams in Athlone Community College. After a few days, when it became apparent he was becoming very sick, he was transferred to Tullamore General Hospital, where a special exam centre was set up for him.
Peter had two rare genetic disorders - porphyria and sideroblastic anaemia - and he had to undergo over 50 blood transfusions. "You can't separate iron from blood," explained his father Trevor, "and the iron overload damaged organs in his body." If he had lived, he might have had to face liver and bone marrow transplants. A heart transplant also loomed.
"One doctor said to me 'we can't transplant everything', and realistically you need to be in good health to come through those," said Trevor, a pastor in the River of Life Church in Athlone.
His mother Diane, who sat with him as he underwent the Leaving Cert in hospital, said the family are "heartbroken" by Peter's death. "We knew he had a serious condition, but we never expected he would die. We have a lot of very good memories and appreciate the last two weeks, when we were with him all the time," she said.
Peter managed to sit papers in English, maths, French, Irish, biology and business studies. Peter's illness first came to light in 2000. A month before he died, schoolmates gave him a standing ovation when he was presented with a special merit award for living a full and active life despite his illness.
As school principal Val O'Connor said, Peter had a "huge influence" on people who knew him.
"Peter was somebody very special. He never looked for sympathy nor used his illness as an excuse to dodge work," he said at a thanksgiving service for the life of Peter Hill on the day of his funeral. Six of his best friends carried his coffin out of the school, where the thanksgiving service was held. Peter had hoped to take a business studies course in Athlone Institute of Technology. The Hill family were moved by the love shown to Peter by teachers and students at Athlone Community College, and by the nurses and staff of Tullamore General Hospital, Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe, and St James's Hospital, Dublin.
Next Tuesday, Peter's classmates will enjoy their graduation ball in a local hotel.
As one student wrote on the Celtic jersey autographed by all his classmates, and presented to the Hill family, they "will never forget Mini".